Olympic silver medallist outplays reigning champion 21-19, 21-16
NEW DELHI: Rio Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu produced a superlative performance beating reigning Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain 21-19 21-16 to win her maiden India Open Super Series title, here on Sunday. In front of a partisan home crowd at the Sirifort Sports Complex, the third seeded Indian dominated the match from the start to win the summit clash in 46 minutes. The win also narrowed down Sindhu’s headto-head record against the Spaniard to 4-5. Sindhu had last defeated Marin in the BWF Super Series in Dubai last year. On the day, Sindhu was far better than Marin controlling the proceedings with ease. Marin was guilty of committing plenty of unforced errors with Sindhu’s deft drops and powerful cross-court smashes also keeping the Spaniard at bay. In both the games, it was Sindhu who took the initiative and set the tempo with early leads. In the opening game Sindhu raced to a 6-1 lead before Marin slowly and steadily clawed her way back into the affair. After the first six points, it was a closely fought encounter between the two of the world’s best shuttlers. Sindhu went into the break with a slim 11-9 lead. The intense fight continued thereafter and at one stage both the shuttlers were locked at 16-16 when Marin won a brilliant rally with a cross court drop shot. For the first time in the game, Marin took a slim 19- 18 lead over Sindhu but the Indian came back strongly to deny her opponent any breathing space with a smash that was followed by a drop shot at net to even the scores t 19-19. The Indian reached game point when Marin found the net and she wrapped it up in no time with a body smash. In the second game, Sindhu continued in the same vein to race to a 4-0 lead. Just like the opening game, Marin quietly clawed her way back into the game to reduce the margin to 6-7. But Sindhu on Sunday was just way above her rival as he managed to hold on to her lead to go into the breather leading 11-9 and then did just enough to keep her dominance. Much to the expectation of the crowd, Sindhu reached the game and match point at 20-15 when Marin committed another unforced error. The Spaniard managed to save one match point but Sindhu sealed it on the very next point when Marin found the net again. In other title clashes of the day, seventh seeded Japanese duo of Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto stunned third seeded compatriots Naoko Fukuman and Kurumi Yonao 16-21 21-19 21-10 to lift the women’s doubles title. Top seeds Siwei Zheng and Qingchen Chen of China defeated countrymen and second seeds Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong 22-24 21-14 21-17 to claim the mixed doubles title. The men’s doubles crown was annexed by fourth seeded Indonesian pair of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo, who beat sixth seeds compatriots Ricky Karandasuwardi and Angga Pratama 21-11 21-15 in a contest that lasted exactly half-an-hour. ‘Winning the 1st game became turning point’ “I really played well. The first game was really crucial for me. It was a good match overall. I am really happy with my performance. She also played well. For both of us, the first game was really important. From the start both of us were fighting for every point. There were no easy points, there were long rallies,” Sindhu said after winning the title. (PTI)