Sindhu stuns No. 1 Tai in Guangzhou

INDIA’S PV Sindhu pulled off a shock at the badminton World Tour Finals yesterday as she defeated top-ranked Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei in three thrilling games.

Sindhu sank to her knees at the end of an exhausting 14-21, 21-16, 21-18 victory in 61 enthralling minutes in Guangzhou, south China’s Guangdong Province.

The 23-year-old, a silver medalist at the Rio Olympics in 2016, faces Zhang Beiwen of the US today looking to make it three wins out of three in Group A.

It turned out to be a disappointing day for Chinese Taipei.

As well as Tai going down to the sixthranked Sindhu, men’s world No. 3 Chou Tien-chen also lost, this time in the men’s draw.

Chou was on the end of an 21-18, 11-21, 14-21 defeat to South Korea’s buoyant Son Wan-ho.

There was no such trouble for men’s No. 1 and world champion Kento Momota of Japan.

He is in ominous form as he looks to put the seal on a breakthrough year and swatted aside Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen 21-15, 21-7 for a second win in a row. The Japanese ace brushed aside India’s Sameer Verma on Wednesday. Verma, however, did better in his second match yesterday, seeing off Indonesia’s Tommy Sugiarto 21-16, 21-7.

China’s Shi Yuqi, one of the main threats to the red-hot Momota, was even more emphatic in dismissing Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia, 21-8, 21-19 in 37 minutes.

In other matches among women, secondseeded Nozomi Okuhara of Japan rallied past Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon 14-21, 21-11, 21-14 while Michelle Li of Canada sprang a surprise by outlasting China’s Chen Yufei 16-21, 21-18, 21-17.