India’s PV Sindhu created history last night by entering in the finals of World Championship 2017. She defeated current junior world champion and 9th seed Chen Yufei in straight games by 21-13 21-10.
This would be Sindhu maiden appearance in the finals of World Championship, earlier she had lost twice in 2013, 2014 at the semi final stage.
In finals today 4th seed Sindhu will face 7th seed Nozomi Okuhara from Japan. Okuhara defeated 12th seeded India’s Saina Nehwal in 3 games match by 12-21 21-17 21-10 in the another semi final.
If we talk about Okuhara and Sidhu’s competition so it could be a neck-to-neck battle between these two.
Okuhara is The World No 12 now, but looking at her current performance and energy it the tournament it would be challenging for Sindhu to win the match in straight games, which she has already shown in her QF and SF match against defending World Champion Carolina Marin and defending Silver medalist Saina Nehwal.
On the other hand, Sindhu (currently The World No 4) is in form since her Olympic triumph and more confident to become 1st Indian to win World Championship Gold after defeating top Chinese players in QF and SF.
Head to Head Competition:
If talk about head to head competition, both girls are leveled at 3-3 with Sindhu has won the last 2 encounters at Singapore Open 2017 and Rio Olympics 2016. Except for Rio SF last year whenever Sindhu has won the 1st game she had lost the match against Okuhara. But the table can be turned anytime.
Game to Game Competition:
In terms of Game to Game competition in this tournament, Sindhu has a record of 8-1, the only game she lost against 13th seed Cheung Ngan Yi (Hong King) in Pre-QF; while Okuhara has 8-3 record this time, she lost one game in last 2 stages.
Points:
Sindhu has won total 189 points and given 135 to her opponents, while Okuhara has a record of 215-175 in points record.
Playing Style:
Okuhara has a tendency to change pace and speed of the shuttle. She can vary the shuttle motion between any corner of the court. It would be hard for Sindhu to return back Okuhara’s backhand high drives which is her signature stroke.
On the other hand, Sindhu is in form athlete and by defeating 2 Chinese players she is in full confidence, also she has defeated Okuhara in last 2 meeting ans she knows Okuhara’s positive and negative points clearly. Apart from this Sindhu’s energy and fitness will give a tough competition to Okuhara. Her height will be also one of the advantage and her shouting during the match will give a mental challenge to her Okuhara. Sindhu also has potential to hard smash over the body and winners across the court.
So whoever wins today, this would be 1st time we will see a new World Champion.