IT’S A HAT-TRICK FOR SINDHU
Indian shuttler PV Sindhu defeated Japan’s Minatsu Mitani in the finals to clinch the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold on Sunday.
The world no 12 Indian dished out some superb strokes to notch up a 21-9 21-23 21-14 win against her sixth-seeded opponent
Although the Japanese rival bounced back in the second game, Sindhu — with the aid of several able shots — regained the initiative and clinched the decider game with an emphatic flourish.
MACAU: Twice defending champion PV Sindhu completed a hat-trict of women’s singles title at the $120,000 Macau Open Grand Prix Gold after defeating Japan’s Minatsu Mitani in the finals here on Sunday.
Sindhu produced a dominating game to notch up a 21-9 21-23 21-14 win against sixth seed Mitani in a women’s singles match that lasted an hour and six minutes here.
The world No 12 dished out some superb strokes and acute angled returns to bamboozle the Japanese, besides making some sound judgements at the baseline to get across Mitani, who struggled to keep the shuttle inside the court. GOOD START Sindhu dominated the proceedings right from the start as she rode on the errors of Mitani to reach 11-5 at the break.
Mitani came up with an aggressive rally and sealed it with a down the line smash but she failed to curb her errors and most of her returns went wide and long to allow Sindhu lead 17-6 in a jiffy.
Sindhu, on the other hand, was mostly accurate with her smashes and drops as she lead 19-9. The Indian came up with some acute angled returns to trouble Mitani and reached the game point with a smash. The Japanese then went wide to hand over the first game to Sindhu.
After the change of sides, Sindhu once again started on a confident note but she also began missing the lines and soon Mitani took the lead to level scores
In the final game Sindhu started well but Mitani caught up. At 20-11, Mitani save three match points but a wide stroke gave Sindhu the title.
“It is a great win. It is a hattrick. Overall it was a good performance. In the finals, the first game was easy but in the second game she (Mitani) played some long rallies, I could have finished it off but I played two smashes into the nets at crucial moments and it was very disappointing,” Sindhu said.