Olympic silver-medallist PV Sindhu clinched the first-ever BWF World Tour Finals trophy by defeating Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara 21-19, 21-17 in Guangzhou, China. The 23-year-old was the only Indian to reach the finals after Sameer Verma lost to China’s Shi Yuqi 21-12, 22-20, 21-17 in the semi-finals on Saturday.
PV Sindhu came second-best in Olympics, World Championships, Commonwealth Games, and Asian Games. This victory broke her jinx of stumbling in the final hurdle.
In her route to the finals, the World No. 6 overcame Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi 24-22, 15-21 in her first match. In her next match against the World No. 1 Tae Tzu-Ying, she lost the first set 14-21. However, she didn’t let it affect her performance and won the next two sets 21-16, 21-18.
In the decider against USA’s Zhang Beiwen, she strolled past her in straight sets 21-9, 21-15. PV Sindhu continued her fine form in the tournament by knocking out Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon 21-16, 25-23 in the semi-finals.
In the finals against World No.2 Nozomi Okuhara, PV Sindhu was leading 14-6 at one instant. But, her opponent showed enough guts and perseverance to make it 16-all. However, all her efforts went in vain as succumbed to a drop shot and lost the set 19-21.
PV Sindhu maintained the two-point gap 5-3 lead in the second set all the way up to 19-17. She, then, won two consecutive points to win the set 21-17.
