Sindhu creates history, ensures a medal at World badminton

Mangaloretoday/DHNS

Guangzhou (China), Aug 9, 2013: Rising shuttler P V Sindhu today created history by becoming the first Indian woman singles player to ensure a medal at the World Badminton Championships after scoring an upset win over local favourite Shixian Wang of China to enter the semifinals here.

Playing in her maiden World Championships, Sindhu, seeded 10th, had an easy outing against the World No. 8 and seventh seeded Wang. The Indian took just 55 minutes to get the better of her fancied Chinese opponent 21-18 21-17.

 

World No. 12, Sindhu will take on the winner of the match between Carolina Marin and Ratchanok Intanon in the last four round.

Before Sindhu, Prakash Padukone won a medal in the World Championships way back in 1983 when he bagged a bronze in the men singles event in Copenhagen, while the women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa bagged another bronze for India in the last edition of the tournament at London in 2011.


Against Wang today, Sindhu relied on her smashes, besides hitting as many as 19 clear winners.

The 18-year-old Indian started to dominate from the word go. After initially being tied at 3-3, the Hyderabadi surged ahead to open a slight 6-3 lead.

Determined not to lose the advantage, Sindhu kept on increasing the gap to make it 13-8.

Wang, however, managed to bag four points on the trot to reduce the margin to 12-13. But Sindhu regained her composure pretty quickly to pocket three consecutive points to once again move ahead.

Wang gave Sindhu scare one more time by making it 18-19 before the Indian eventually wrapped it up 21-18.

In the second game also, Sindhu straight-away took a 6-2 lead before four straight points from Wang served as a warning bell to the Indian.

Tied at 6-6, Sindhu roared back with three consecutive points to move ahead once again and thereafter she always maintained a lead of at least a point or two.

Comfortably placed at 20-16, Sindhu wasted just one match point before she capped it off in style to seal the game 21-17.

Sindhu is having a dream run at the tournament as she had stunned defending champion Yihan Wang of China in the pre-quarterfinals.

 

Medal again eludes Saina, Kashyap too losses at World Championship

The elusive World Championship medal once again slipped through Saina Nehwal’s fingers as the Indian ace suffered a straight-game defeat against Korean Yeon Ju Bae in the quarterfinals of the prestigious event here today.

The London Olympics bronze-medallist, a quarterfinalist in the last two editions as well, was erratic and could not hold her nerves as she went down rather tamely 21-23 9-21 in a 40-minute match at the Tianhe Indoor Stadium.

 

Kashyap, who was also playing at the adjacent court, played out of his skin but still could not get across world number three Du Pengyu of China. His gallant fight ended with a 21-16 20-22 15-21 loss in an energy-sapping contest which lasted one hour and 15 minutes here.

Saina played an aggressive game in the opening match and opened up a 11-7 lead at the interval. Her baseline smashes got her a lot of points as the Indian was in control of the match.

However, Bae, who looked off-colour initially as she struggled with her strokes and reach, slowly narrowed down the lead and clawed back at 19-19. Saina was struggling with the drift as she lost a lot of points hitting wide. The Indian also faltered at the net.

From nowhere, Bae not only came into the contest but also exerted the pressure on the Indian and after a hard fight won the opening game when Saina’s shuttle kissed the net and toppled outside the court.

Losing the opening game dented Saina’s confidence as she failed to put any resistance to Bae strokes. Bae, on the other hand, was confidence personified as she played like a champion and decimated the Indian.

The left-handed Korean dominated the proceedings completely as after a 5-5 initial fight, she moved to the interval with a 11-6 lead. The Korean’s strokes were powerful and drops deceptive as she reduced Saina to a bystander.

National coach Pullela Gopichand, who was also monitoring the Kashyap’s match at the adjacent court, also could not lift Saina’s spirits at the break as the Indian completely resigned in the final moments of the game.

Bae, on the other hand, held her nerves and wrapped up the match quickly to seal her place at the semifinals.