PV Sindhu bags silver at World Championships after a thrilling final

PV Sindhu bags a silver medal in women’s singles at the World Badminton Championships held in Glasgow after losing the final match to Nozomi Okuhara of Japan. The final gruelling match between the two shuttlers took place on Sunday ,which lasted for an hour and 50 minutes, the longest World Championships match till now.

Sindhu, who has previously won two bronze medals in 2013 and 2014 World Championships, entered the finals beating China’s Chen Yufei 21-30, 21-10 on Saturday. After finishing the semi final at around 2:30 am, she was back in the court for finals after only 17 hours.

The finalists were at their best game despite being exhausted due to the gruelling head-on game and long rallies. Both were first-timers, which resulted in a powerful final match. Okuhara won against Sindhu in a three-game final with 21-19, 20-22, and 22-20.

The first game saw the two players going neck-to-neck with a few unforced errors on both sides. Sindhu played on the net at 19-19 to give Okuhara a game-point and then played wide of the court losing her first game with 19-21.

In the second game, Sindhu came back re-energised and took a strong lead early on with 5-1. Okuhara came back with a strong response winning five back-to-back points and reducing the gap to 8-9. They both fought out neck-to-neck post break, with the Japanese player chasing Sindhu at 17-18. However, Okuhara made a slip, giving Sindhu a 19-17 lead. Sindhu grabbed some crucial points winning the second game with 22-20.

Okuhara opened the third game and soon got a lead of 5-1, but Sindhu came back with a fight and levelled with a 5-5 score. They had long rallies that made both the players extremely tired and drained out. Despite Sindhu taking a crucial lead with 19-17, she made two unforced errors giving Okuhara the two championship points. Okuhara took the opportunity and sealed the final with 22-20, winning the World Championships.

This was the first time Sindhu played the finals of the World Championships, and also the first time the country returns with two medals. Saina Nehwal won the bronze medal after losing her three-game semifinals against Okuhara on Saturday. Okuhara returns to Japan beating both Indian players with the country’s first world title.

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