Rio Olympic’s silver medalist and 4th seed PV Sindhu lost BWF World Championship final against 7th seed Nozomi Okuhara from Japan by 19-21 22-20 20-22.
This was the maiden World Championship final for both the shuttlers and Nozomi wins it by nailing down Sindhu at every point. India’s Saina Nehwal also won bronze in the same category.
Game 1
Okuhara was leading by 5-3 but Sindhu hits some powerful shots and got 11-5 lead at the break. After the break it was head to head battle between these two players and the game was leveled at 19-19 and Japanese player won it easily with 2 easy shots. Sindhu has made so many unforced errors in the game while Nozomi was very quick with her variant shuttle techniques.
Game 2
Sindhu was dominating the game by winning points over the net and at a moment was leading by 9-3. But till break, Okuhara managed to make it 11-9 by giving only 2 points lead to Sindhu. We saw so many good rallies between two and at a moment the score was leveled at 13-13. At a moment Sindhu was at 20-17 but Okuhara comes back and leveled the score again at 20-20. Sindhu won the game by 22-20 after a 73 shots rally.
Game 3
The decider game was more interesting, as played their heart out in the middle and exhibited some extraordinary skills of the game on the court with few of powerful smashes, net points, winners and drop shots. both Sindhu and Okuhara
Okuhara started leading the game by 5-1 but Sindhu won 4successivee points and make it 5-5. At the break, Sindhu was leading by 11-9 but the Okuhara started showing her mental and physical strength and leveled the game at 11-11. The Match Umpire has shown a yellow card (Warning) to Sindhu for not turning up on the court and halting the game. In the final stage of the game Sindhu took the crucial lead of 18-17 and made it 19-17 but Okuhara played hard and leveled the game 19-19. An unforced error on the net has given Okuhara match point but Sindhu easily leveled it at 20-20. But again same error by Sindhu and Okuhara got her 2nd championship point and won it easily by 22-20.
The match lasted for 110 minutes which is the longest match of the World Championships.
PV Sindhu | Source: Badminton Update Twitter
This was Sindhu’s third medal Worlds, She also won bronze twice in 2013 and 2014 after losing at the semi-final stage in both the editions.
Saina Nehwal | Source: Badminton Update Twitter
It was India’s best ever World Championship as India has now 2 medals from a single world championship. Another Badminton queen Saina Nehwal also won the bronze medal after her defeat in the semifinal.
Nozomi Okuhara | Source Badminton Update Twitter
By winning the Championship Okuhara becomes the first Japanese player in the history of World Championship to win Women’s singles title.
Sindhu and Okuhara both have shown a fantastic display of the Badminton to the crowd and make their countrymen proud while Saina bronze medal in the championship, although she is recovering from injury, is an inspiration for Indians.
Both Sindhu and Saina made India proud today.