PV SINDHU ASSURED OF BRONZE
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS Rio silver medallist brushes aside Chinese World No 6 to ensure third medal at meet
NEW DELHI: PV Sindhu did not have to break a sweat as she eased past World No.6 Sun Yu 21-14, 21-9 in 39 minutes to enter the women’s singles semifinals for the third time at the World Championships, in Glasgow on Friday.
The 2016 Rio Olympics silvermedallist needed just 39 minutes to dismiss the Chinese fifth seed to assure herself of a third World Championship medal, a feat achieved by no other Indian.
The 22-year-old Sindhu, who time and again has shown how to lift herself at the big stage, always brings out a game which is good enough to beat the best in the world.
Unlike the previous three decades, when Indian shuttlers struggled at the world’s biggest stage, the Pullela Gopichand coached Indian shuttlers have been among medals in recent times.
Prakash Padukone pioneered India’s success at the Worlds, winning a men’s singles bronze at the 1983 edition.
India had to wait for another 28 years before Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa clinched a bronze at the 2011 Worlds. Since then, Indian women have ensured they do not return empty handed from the annual event.
Sindhu won successive bronze medals in 2013 and 2014 and Saina Nehwal went a step further, winning silver at the 2015 edition. (The World Championships are not held in the year of the Olympics).
Such was Sindhu’s dominance on Friday that the fourth seed won 42 of the 65 points played in the match to register her fourth victory over the Chinese in eight meetings.
At the start, Sindhu rushed to a 3-0 lead. Sun tried closing the gap at 4-5 but made far too many errors and poor line judgement calls, allowing Sindhu to take a 13-4 lead.
The unforced errors made it too easy for a player of Sindhu’s calibre, who needed just 19 minutes to win the game. The Indian World No. 4 did not even have to use her ‘killer’ smashes and closed it on her second game point.
One would have expected China’s top player to fight back in the second game but Sun Yu had lost confidence after losing the first. She continued making errors and Sindhu took the momentum into the second game.
The fourth seed needed only one matchpoint to finish the contest.
Sindhu next faces ninth seed and World No.10 Chen Yufei, who ousted former World Champion Ratchanok Intanon in the quarterfinals earlier in the day.
Chen, also a Chinese, has a 1-1 head-to-head against Sindhu but won the only contest played between them this year, in Malaysia.