Sitting pretty with a commanding 11-3 lead at the half-way stage of the third and deciding game of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 badminton championship women’s singles final, Pusarla Venkata Sindhu looked all set to win her first international title since the Singapore Open in mid-2022.

Alas, it was not to be. After switching ends to what was the “bad” side in Kuala Lumpur’s Axiata Arena, with a diabolical cross drift taking the shuttle persistently out at both the baseline and the backhand sideline, Sindhu’s game degenerated and confidence unravelled in alarming fashion, to allow World No. 6, Wang Zhi Yi of China, to sprint to the title.