Dubai: World No. 1 Akane Yamaguchi justified her top status as the Japanese fought back from a one-game deficit to tame PV Sindhu 15-21, 21-12, 21-19 and break a few Indian hearts at the Hamdan Sports Complex in the season-ending BWF Dubai World Superseries Finals on Sunday.
Bidding to become the first Indian woman champion after 10 years of the season-ending tournament, Sindhu once again fell short while showing her mental frailty on the big stage for a third time in her career.
The Indian, who had lost to Carolina Marin in the gold medal match at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, had also fallen at the final hurdle against Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in the final of the 2017 World Championships in Glasgow earlier this year.
Played before a packed stadium, the 22-year-old Indian from Hyderabad — who was also battling a cold — won the first game with ease 21-15 before failing to stem the tide against a crafty opponent who simply refused to give in during the battle of the top two ranked players in the world in a gripping 93 minutes.
Yamaguchi received her winner’s cheque for $80,000 (Dh293,000) from Poul-Erik Hoyer, the BWF President, and her trophy from Saeed Hareb, the general secretary of Dubai Sports Council (DSC), in the presence of sponsors’ representatives. Sindhu was richer by $40,000 for her efforts.
“At 19-all it was anybody’s game and there was nothing that I could do different at that stage,” a teary Sindhu told media about the final game.
“There is this small feeling that this was almost like the World Championships. But these things happen and they are part of life and I’ve got to move on from here.”
Coming in to Dubai with possibly her best season so far, Sindhu had defeated her top-ranked 20-year-old opponent in straight games 21-9, 21-13 in a mere 36 minutes on Friday and book her place in the semi-finals at the top of her group. Earlier this year, Sindhu won the Indian Open and the Korean while finishing as runner-up at last month’s Hong Kong Open.
Sindhu went in with a 5-2 head-to-head career advantage against Yamaguchi. But that accounted for nothing in the end as it was her younger opponent exacting sweet revenge for her loss last Friday. “I knew it was going to be a game of long rallies. My focus was to keep her [Sindhu] moving around and then take my chances,” Yamaguchi said.
Egged on by the partisan crowd, Sindhu got off to a sound start only to see her Japanese opponent catch up with her at 8-8. However, the Indian nosed clear in the very next point and won the next four for a comfortable 13-8 lead. From then on it was a see-saw battle between the world’s best players and it was Sindhu who suddenly broke clear and win the next six points to be on game point and Yamaguchi stuck on 13. But the Indian did enough to take the lone point to go clear 21-15 in 23 minutes.
Riding on the longest rally of 35 shots, the Indian rode on a fiery start in the second game to a healthy 5-0 cushion, only to see her opponent draw level for a second time at 8-8. From then on it was a one-sided game with Sindhu managing to win just four points as Yamaguchi raced away to draw even 21-12 in 27 engrossing minutes.
The third game once again saw Sindhu 4-0 clear, but her opponent went on to take the lead at 6-5. Then on, the two players were involved in some tense lengthy rallies that ultimately saw Yamaguchi sneak across to a 17-15 lead. A lucky point won on challenge followed by a net cord drop had the two tied at 17-17. However, from then on Yamaguchi kept stretching the worn out Sindhu who made a few too many errors to hand over the game and the crown to her younger opponent.
