BWF Superseries Finals: PV Sindhu battles past Akane Yamaguchi in opener
The Indian conceded a 3-6 lead early in the opening game, faltering with her strokes.
New Delhi: Olympic silver medallist P.V. Sindhu began her maiden appearance at the prestigious BWF World Super Series Final, defeating higher-ranked Japanese Akane Yamaguchi 12-21, 21-8, 21-15 in Dubai on Wednesday.
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.
World no. 10 Sindhu 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.