No country has been spared by the schedule for singles in Round of 32 and 16, played on same day and Quarters within 12 hours, in some cases like PV Sindhu and Jonatan Christie. The schedule also ensured that both Chinese Men’s singles shuttlers were out before Quarters. The first voices of protest have come from the Chinese.

Women’s doubles World No 1 Tan Ning told Chinese media in mixed zone, “I feel the schedule is unfair. We went to make official complaint but the chief referee didnt do anything about it. But when the Japan team complained, they actually changed the time schedule.”

The turnaround times for doubles have also been punishing, but singles, especially the 4 teams playing the Team Event that got over on Thursday, have suffered the most from lack of recovery.

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In India, both Sindhu and Unnati Hooda, played 3 matches inside 26 hours, including two each against Top Tenners. The hotel was 2 hours away. Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty, who featured in Team semis, also lost early.

Singapore smartly never bothered fielding its squad in the team event, and a fresh Loh Kean Yew ran through Sen in the third set. Chou Tien Chen who beat Ayush Shetty also wasn’t in semis contention till Thursday.

India’s singles player HS Prannoy had tweeted how the medal ceremony went on till 11 pm the night before the doubles got underway.

Korean singles bucked the trend. But they barely turn out on the circuit and arrived rested for the Asian Games – ranked outside of 30, but fresh. That’s one way to go about it.