JAKARTA: Olympic medallist PV Sindhu yet again finished second-best in a major final but grabbed a historic individual silver medal at the Asian Games after losing the women’s singles title clash to world number one Tai Tzu-Ying here on Tuesday.
No Indian had ever reached the final of a singles event at the Asian Games before the 23-year-old from Hyderabad, who lost 13-21 16-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Tai in just 34 minutes. It is the first time that India has won two individual medals at the Asian Games with Saina Nehwal clinching a bronze earlier. Saina was also conquered by Tai in the semifinals.
It was Sindhu’s third defeat in a big final this year, having lost the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games title clash to Saina Nehwal and the World Championship summit clash to Spain’s Carolina Marin. The Rio Olympic silver medallist had also lost the finals at India Open (to Beiwen Zhang) and Thailand Open (to Nozomi Okuhara) this year. Having lost previous five encounters to Tai, world number three Sindhu needed to punch above her weight to tackle the Chinese Taipei ace. Tai was in complete control from the beginning, taking the first five points of the match, with her trademark sharp returns. Sindhu had no option but to attack. (PTI)
‘Tai not unbeatable’
JAKARTA: Outplayed for the sixth successive time by Tai Tzu-Ying, but Indian badminton ace PV Sindhu insists she doesn’t have any mental block against the world no 1, who can be beaten with a little more “patience”.
Olympic medallist Sindhu today lost 13-21 16-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Tai in just 34 minutes to settle for silver here.
However, Sindhu insisted that there was not a huge gap and the Chinese Taipei player is beatable.
“There is not a huge gap. We just have to be prepared and ready, definitely we are going to break that (losing streak). It’s not easy but if we work on our mistakes, we can do it,” Sindhu said. “There is no mental block, but sometimes you make mistakes and give her a huge lead. You have to keep going, stick to that. I gave her easy points.
“If I had played patiently and kept the shuttle in, it could have been different. It was not easy to take points from her because her defence was also good.”
Tai won her country’s first ever singles gold medal in badminton at the Asian Games, outclassing both Saina and Sindhu en route the title win.
In fact, Sindhu and compatriot Saina Nehwal have lost 22 matches between them to Tai. The last time Sindhu got the better of Tai was at the Rio Olympics (PTI)