BWF World Tour Title 2018 at Guangzhou, China: India’s PV Sindhu won the title of Badminton World Tour Title by 21-19, 21-17.
With this, she has become the first Indian shuttler to win this title.
After winning the World Tour Finals by defeating Champion Nozomi Okuhara in 2018, Sindhu had won a major gold medal in a big tournament.
PV Sindhu, who was playing in the third consecutive season-ending tournament and second straight final, had to settle for a silver medal after losing to Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi last year.
Sindhu, who had failed in the final of the long tournament last year, had a lot of relief with the tears of joy.
Saina Nehwal reached the BWF World Super Series Finals in 2011 and, in 2009, Jwala Gutta and V Diju’s mixed doubles pair were sub-winners in doubles.
In the first set of the game, Okuhara made some mistakes due to which Sindhu made a lead.
She scored some good drop shots and made the 7-3 lead, but Okuhara scored 5-7.
Sindhu then dominated the long rally and preceded 11-6 ahead of the break.
After the break, Okuhara made a comeback and equalized the score to 16-16.
Okuhara blinked and made two uncharacteristic errors and gave Sindhu 19-17 advantage.
Soon enough, Sindhu got 3 game points after which she won the first set.
In the second set, Sindhu enters Okuhara at a long rally to make a 6-4 lead but the Japanese shuttler made it equal to 7-7.
Until break, Sindhu went on to lead the game by 11-9.
A service error and an impatient smash wide of the line by Okuhara meant Sindhu was two points away from glory.
Okuhara took just one more point but Sindhu held on to win the match and ensured she stood on the top of the podium this time and not on the second step.
-Harleen Sandhu
