SINDHU BEATS INTANON IN STRAIGHT SETS, ENTERS HONG KONG OPEN FINAL
Wins 2117, 2117 in just 43 minutes to reach her third Superseries final of the year
NEWDELHI: PV Sindhu was in sublime form on Saturday as she defeated former world champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand with relative ease in straight games to enter the final of the $400,000 Hong Kong Open Superseries.
In the battle of the 22-yearolds, it was the second seeded Indian who came out on top as she won 21-17, 21-17 in 43 minutes at the Hong Kong Coliseum.
This was the World No.3 Sindhu’s only second win in six meetings against the Thai sixth seed and first since September 2015 when the Rio Olympics silver medallist clinched the match in deciding game.
The final will be a repeat of last year’s summit clash as Sindhu will face World No.1, top seed and defending champion Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei on Sunday.
Reigning Asian Champion Tai beat South Korean third seed Sung Ji Hyun 21-9, 18-21, 21-7 in 52 minutes in the other semi-final earlier in the day and will be looking to win her fifth Superseries crown of 2017 after triumphing at All England, Malaysia, Singapore and France.
Sindhu, on the other hand, will be eyeing her third Superseries title after winning the India Open in New Delhi and the Korea Open Superseries.
The final will expectedly be the toughest contest for Sindhu in Hong Kong as she has a poor 3-7 career record against the Chinese Taipei girl.
World No.1 Tai has won the last three meetings between them, including two this year. In fact, the last time three-time World Championships medallist Sindhu won against Tai was at the opening round of the 2016 Rio Olympics.
But Friday belonged to Sindhu as she notched a relatively comfortable victory against the World No.6.
Like the quarter-finals against Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi on Friday, Sindhu led from the start in the first game. Sixth
SINDHU WILL BE EYEING HER THIRD SUPERSERIES TITLE AFTER WINNING IN INDIA AND SOUTH KOREA
seeded Ratchanok’s deceptive shots at the net proved ineffective as Sindhu tackled them with ease, often catching the Thai girl with a surprise drop or loft.
Though Ratchanok tried her best to win points, she was far from her best as Sindhu took an 11-7 lead at the break.
The Hyderabadi reached gamepoint (20-13) quite quickly but Ratchanok did not give up that easily and saved four.
But on her fifth attempt Sindhu moved within one game from the final.
It was quite close early on in the second game with nothing to choose from. But from 5-6 Sindhu won seven straight points to take a massive step towards the final as she went ahead 12-6 in the lead.
The gap was too big to close for Ratchanok even though she came close.
The rallies got longer towards the end of the match. And at the end Sindhu needed only one match point to close the game and match and advance to the summit clash of the championship.