Basel, March 7: World Champion P V Sindhu finished a distant second in the Swiss Open final after being completely routed by Olympic gold medallist Carolina Marin of Spain in a lop-sided women’s singles title clash here on Sunday.
The 25-year-old Indian, who had won the coveted World Championship gold medal here in 2019, couldn’t match the speed and accuracy of top seed Marin during her 12-21, 5-21, defeat in the final that lasted only 35 minutes.
It was Sindhu’s third successive loss to Marin, who had won both the Super 1000 events in Thailand in January before finishing runners-up at the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals.
Playing her first final in 18 months, Sindhu, ranked 7th in the world, entered the match with a 5-8 head-to-head record against Marin, having lost her last two matches against the former world no 1.
The second seeded Indian, who didn’t drop a game in the last four matches this week, however, failed to summon her ‘A’ game under pressure as Marin came up trumps to claim her third title of the year.
Marin, the current world no 3, had also defeated Sindhu in the final of the Rio Olympics in 2016.
Sindhu, who didn’t have a good outing in the last three events in Thailand in January, seemed completely clueless against a rampaging Marin, who outclassed the Indian with her pace, power and precision during the summit clash.
The Indian was knocked out in the opening round of the Yonex Thailand Open, before she managed to reach the quarterfinals at the Toyota Thailand Open.
Sindhu also failed to qualify for the knockout stage at the World Tour Final after losing two out of the three matches in the group stage.
Sindhu will next compete at the USD 850,000 All England Championships, a Super 1000 event to be held from March 17 to 21. (PTI)
