BWF Dubai Superseries Finals: Indian Badminton Star and Olympic silver medallist P.V. Sindhu began her maiden appearance at the prestigious BWF World Superseries Finals on the winning note. She defeated the higher-ranked Japanese Akane Yamaguchi by 12-21, 21-8, 21-15 in Dubai on Wednesday.
“It was a good match and a long match, I am really happy that I won because this is my first time here,” said Sindhu. She added saying that “I could have played a lot better. In the first game, I did a lot of negatives. I was a bit nervous and not really very patient, but then I came back and finished it off.”
Summary of the game between PV Sindhu and Akane Yamaguchi in BWF Dubai Superseries Finals:
Sindhu eked out the win over her world no. 8 opponent in just over an hour. The Indian conceded a 3-6 lead early in the opening game, faltering with her strokes. Yamaguchi extended the lead to 11-5 at the break in the Group B clash.
Sindhu, who is World no. 10 looked impatient, which affected her performance as Yamaguchi raced to a 14-7 lead. Sindhu then won five successive points to trim Yamaguchi’s lead to 14-11 but unforced errors cost the Hyderabadi the opening game.
She, however, regrouped in the second game, going up 4-0, but Yamaguchi narrowed it to 4-6 and drew parity at 7-7. Sindhu nosed ahead and went into the interval leading 11-7 with a round-the-head smash before closing out the game at 21-8.
The deciding game began with a fast-paced rally, which saw Yamaguchi hitting wide. Sindhu tried to neutralise her rival’s deceptive play by pushing her back and came up with a power-packed return to lead 6-3.
She seized the initiative from there on, winning another good rally with a cross-court net flick, forcing Yamaguchi to make a judgemental error at the baseline, to go into the break 11-7. Sindhu continued her march after the interval and reached 17-12. A sharp smash took her to 20-14 and she sealed the match when the Japanese girl hit wide.
PV Sindhu vs Sun Yu and Carolina Marin vs Akane Yamaguchi in Next game of BWF Dubai Superseries Finals.
Sindhu is in a competitive Group B that has top players like Yamaguchi, Carolina Marin and China’s Sun Yu. PV Sindhu will face Sun Yu which is definitely going to be super exciting as Sun Yu has beaten Carolina Marin who has beaten the Sindhu in Olympics Finals. Both Sindhu and Sun Yu are on 3-3 wins whenever they faced each other.
Also, Marin will face Yamaguchi in the next and both players will try to come back in the game.
“I played against Sun Yu recently at the China Open and I know it is not going to be an easy match,” Sindhu said. “We know each other’s game, so it really depends on our strategy for the day and whoever can implement it on the court, and change and adapt when necessary, will be the winner.”
