Ying wins All England women’s crown

birmingham — Top seed and defending champion Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan beat second seed Akane Yamaguchi from Japan to win the women’s final of the All England Open badminton championship in Birmingham on Sunday. The world number one came through in a tight final 22-20, 21-13.

Earlier, Olympic silver medallist shuttler P V Sindhu lost an epic semifinal against World No. 2 Yamaguchi to bow out of the $1000,000 touranment.

Sindhu failed to build on a handsome lead in the decider to go down 21-19 19-21 18-21 to Yamaguchi after battling for an hour and 19 minutes last night. This was the ninth victory on the trot for the 20-year-old Japanese, who had won the German Open early this month.

In scenes similar to the one that went down to the wire in the summit clash of last year’s Dubai Super Series Final, both Sindhu and Yamaguchi threw themselves for everything on the court, traversing diagonally again and again during a series of punishing rallies, which defined the edgeof-theseat thriller.

However, in the end it was Yamaguchi, who showed better nerves to walk away with the match and book a place at the final against World No. 1 Taiwanese Tai Tzu Ying at the Arena Birmingham.

Despite being on the court for almost 3 and a half hours during the three-game matches in last three days, Sindhu didn’t show any signs of fatigue and matched the nimble-footed Yamaguchi as they looked to outdo each other. But a slight lapse of concentration in the dying moments contributed to her defeat.

The battle of supremacy continued in the decider and after the first six points, Sindhu unleashed a couple of fantastic down-the-line smashes on both the flanks to grab a 6-3 lead. She extended it to 8-5 with another attacking return.

Yamaguchi won another 44shot rally, while Sindhu saw one get buried at the net as the Japanese narrowed it to 7-8. Sindhu let out a scream after the Japanese sent one to net and then unleashed a precise smash to go into the interval with a four-point advantage.

After changing sides for the last time, Sindhu grabbed two more points before Yamaguchi produced a body smash. The Japanese kept putting the shuttle in difficult positions and won another long rally — 51 shots — to keep snapping at her heels. A bad jugdement at the backline and another wide shot saw Yamaguchi level score at 14-14.— PTI