Kalinga TV News Network
New Delhi: PV Sindhu on Saturday entered the finals of BWF World Championship for a second consecutive time after defeating Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi (21-16, 24-22), during a 55-minute match at Nanjing in China. She will now face Carolina Marin in the final match on Sunday.
After a shaky start, Sindhu miraculously elevated her performance in the second game. At a very crucial point, when her co-player needed two points to push the match into decider, Sindhu scored a mind-blowing eight points which proved to be the game changer.
The 23-year-old Olympic silver medalist from Hyderabad was a bit nervous at first but later zoomed into action. At 4-8, she scored five straight points to achieve a 9-8 lead. However, Yamaguchi managed to retain a 11-10 lead post break as Sindhu failed to cross the net. Sindhu again came up reinvigorated and at 10-12, she went on to score eight straight points to reach 18-12. However, she went out twice which gave her Japanese counterpart an edge to recover her losses. But tables turned when Yamaguchi vacillated and Sindhu sprang back in action and scored four big points in a single go.
Alike the first game, Sindhu started her second one on a weak note. She successively picked up to reduce the gap to 7-8. On the other hand, Yamaguchi bounced back after Sindhu’s retreat from the court and moved to the interval with an 11-7 advantage. She further extended her score to 14-9.
At this point, Sindhu recovered from her position at 12-9, moving ahead to score eight straight points to seize one match point while Yamaguchi saved one point to herself before goofing up during the game, only to dissipate her advantage.
In the subsequent round, Yamaguchi handed over Sindhu a second match point which was followed by the longest rally of the contest, consisting of 41 shots ending with Sindhu’s victory.
Sindhu will be facing Spanish Olympic champion and former two-time gold medallist Carolina Marin on Sunday.
Interestingly, it was Marin who had defeated Sindhu and won a gold medal at the Rio Olympics. The Spanish player currently has a 6-5 advantage over her Indian counterpart who had defeated her in their last match at the Malaysia open in June this year.
Ms Kalinga