Sindhu Loses Final, Bags India’s 1st Badminton Silver at Asiad

World No. 3 PV Sindhu won a silver at the Asian Games after losing the final to Tai Tzu Ying.

• Sindhu lost 13-21, 16-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying in the women’s final, which lasted for 34 minutes.
  
• This was Sindhu’s sixth consecutive loss to Tai Tzu Ying.
  
• The Asiad Final was Sindhu’s third defeat in a big final this year after Commonwealth Games and World Championship.
  

Indian shuttler PV Sindhu won the silver medal in women’s singles event at the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta on Tuesday. Sindhu lost the title clash against world number 1 Tai Tzu Ying.

No Indian had ever reached the final of a singles event at the Asian Games before the 23-year-old from Hyderabad, who lost 13-21 16-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Tai in just 34 minutes.

It is the first time that India has won two individual medals at the Asian Games with Saina Nehwal clinching a bronze earlier. Saina was also conquered by Tai in the semi-finals.

It was Sindhu's third defeat in a big final this year, having lost the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games title clash to Saina Nehwal and the World Championship summit clash to Spain's Carolina Marin.

(For The Quint’s complete coverage of 2018 Asian Games, click here.)

There is no mental block, but sometimes you make mistakes and give her (Tai) a huge lead. You have to keep going, stick to that. I gave her easy points.

PV Sindhu

"If I had played patiently and kept the shuttle in, it could have been different. It was not easy to take points from her because her defence was also good,” said Sindhu.

I felt no pressure. The result is okay but important is to give your 100 per cent and the result showed it. That’s all what I felt. Overall it was good tournament.

PV Sindhu

Having lost previous five encounters to Tai, world number three Sindhu needed to punch above her weight to tackle the Chinese Taipei ace.

Tai was in complete control from the beginning, taking the first five points of the match, with her trademark sharp returns.

Sindhu had no option but to attack. She returned harder to reduce the deficit to 4-6 but Tai consistently outsmarted Sindhu, using the deft drop shots very effectively.

The Taipei player was deceptive in her strokes and pulled away with a 17-10 lead.

She would change the angle and direction of the stroke very easily, making it difficult for Sindhu to anticipate and find appropriate returns. The first game was over in just 16 minutes.

To negate Tai's strong net game, Sindhu tried to push her back to the baseline in the second game. It got her points but she lost too many points due to unforced errors as some of the shots sailed over the lines.

The strategy could have been more effective if she had not missed drop shots after pinning Tai to baseline.

Initially, Sindhu was tied with Tai at 4-4 but as the game wore on, the Taipei shuttler continued to tighten her grip over the contest. An un-returnable smash put her ahead 15-10.

It was over soon with Tai earning a match point with Sindhu netting a shuttle at 15-19.

Sindhu saved the first match point with a smash winner on Tai's backhand. The Taipei ace sealed it with a drop shot winner.

(With inputs from PTI)