Sindhu in final of Thailand Open, awaits Okuhara
NEWDELHI:INDIAN badminton star PV Sindhu entered the women’s singles final of the $350,000 Thailand Open with a thrilling win over Indonesian Gregoria Mariska Tunjung at the Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok on Saturday.
The second seed took exactly an hour to beat the unseeded Indonesian 23-21, 16-21, 21-9 and extend her perfect head-to-head record to 3-0.
World No.3 Sindhu will take on arch-rival and reigning world champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the summit clash of the BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament on Sunday.
The duo have a 5-5 record against each other but significantly Sindhu won their only meeting this year at the All England Open quarterfinals in March. Sindhu is looking to become the fourth Indian to win the tournament after Saina Nehwal (2012), Kidambi Srikanth (2013) and B Sai Praneeth (2017).
After sharing the first two games, it all boiled down to the decider where it was neck-andneck with Sindhu leading 8-7. However, the Hyderabadi found legs to notch the next 10 points and raced away to a 18-7 lead.
The Olympic silver medallist won three of the next five points played to take the victory and enter the summit clash.
Overall, out of the 111 points played, Sindhu won 60 while Gregoria clinched 51.
SHUTTLERS EXCEL
JAKARTA: Fifth-seeded Indian junior shuttlers had a grand opening to their campaign in the Asian Junior Championships which began on Saturday. They thrashed Kazakhstan 5-0 in mixed team championships, the process taking a little over 100 minutes. The Kazak players were no match to the Indians as world No 11 Akarshi Kashyap disposed of Iya Gordeyeva 21-5, 21-4 in Group C.
However, the ride for world No 9 Lakshya Sen was not that easy as he encountered some early problems before overcoming Dmitriy Panarin 21-15, 21-12. In women’s doubles Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker rolled past Iya Gordeyeva and Aisha Zhumabek 21-7, 21-8 to take an unassailable lead. The Indians take on Sri Lanka on Sunday morning and Korea in the evening. The Indian shuttlers are expected to sail into to the knockout stages as two top teams from each group make the second-stage cut.