Sindhu Faces Okuhara in Title Match of BWF Tour Finals at 10:30am

India’s star shuttler defeats Ratchanok Intanon, sets up summit clash against second seed Nozomi Okuhara on Sunday.

PV Sindhu reached her second BWF year-end final in a row by defeating Ratchanok Intanon in the semis.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/BAI Media)

• PV Sindhu will face second seed Nozomi Okuhara in the final match of the BWF World Tour Finals at 10:30am IST.
• This is the Indian’s sixth final appearance of 2018, she is yet to win a title this season.
• In the semi-final on Saturday, Sindhu beat Ratchanok Intanon 21-16, 25-23.

It may have been a year of near-misses for PV Sindhu, but the Olympic medallist will get a chance to sign off on 2018 on a high after qualifying for the title clash at the BWF World Tour Finals at Guangzhou, China.

The Indian shuttler made her way through to a second straight final at the season-ending event by getting the better of Ratchanok Intanon in the semi-finals.

Sindhu, ranked world number six, defeated the Thai world number eight 21-16, 25-23.

Without a title through the calendar year despite appearing in five finals – including at the World Championships, the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games – Sindhu will now meet second seed Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the summit clash on Sunday, 16 December.

Raising The Game

While she had won all three of her rubbers to come out of a tough Group A, Sindhu knew she had her task cut out against an opponent who she trailed 4-3 in career meetings. Intanon won two of the first three points of the tie, but Sindhu never went behind in a neck-and-neck opening game after that.

The biggest lead held by any player before the halfway break was three points, when Sindhu led 10-7, before Intanon pulled one back to trail 9-11.

The Thai briefly levelled scores at 12-12 after the break, but Sindhu pulled clear by winning five of the next seven points. The momentum remained with the Indian, and she closed out the opener 21-16.

She carried that momentum into the second game, leading 4-0 and then 10-7, but Intanon fought back to make a match out of it.

Then began a series of ebbs and flows, with the lead going one way then another, before the players entered an intriguing climax with the game tantalisingly poised at 19-19.

Intanon would thrice edge ahead and position herself on game points, but it was Sindhu who nicked ahead and converted her second match point to book her berth in Sunday’s final.

One ‘Final’ Jinx to Break

It has been a campaign where Sindhu has broken free of one long-standing jinx – victory in her second group rubber against Tai Tzu Ying, even if against a later-revealed-to-be-injured opponent, saw the 23-year-old snap out of a seven-match losing streak against the Taiwanese world number one.

Now, she has a chance to shed her ‘Silver Sindhu’ tag.

Presently, Sindhu is a silver medal-holder at the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games, the Asian Games and the World Championships (where she has two silvers in the last two years).

It’s a proud achievement, but one she would dearly want to improve upon. Having lost out in last year’s title match at what was then known as the BWF Super Series Finals, Sindhu has a shot at ending a year of five lost finals with one prized title.

That she goes up against world number five Okuhara – her conqueror at an epic summit clash at the World Championships in 2017 – provides the Indian star a chance to make victory even sweeter.