Indian badminton ace PV Sindhu entered the summit clash of BWF World Tour Finals with a hard-fought win over Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the semi finals here on Saturday.
Sindhu, the reigning world champion and two-time Olympic medallist, beat Yamaguchi 21-15, 15-21, 21-19 in a match which lasted one hour and 10 minutes.
She will face South Korea’s An Seyoung, who defeated Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand 25-23, 21-17 in the other semi final, in the final match on Sunday.
It will be Sindhu’s third final appearance in the season-ending tournament. She had won the title in 2018 to become the only Indian to achieve the feat.
Sindhu had come into the match with an overall head-to-head win-loss record of 12-8 against the world No. 3 Japanese.
It won’t be easy for Sindhu in the final against Seyoung who had come into the season-ending tournament with back-to-back titles in the Indonesia Masters and Indonesia Open.
Seyoung had also beaten Sindhu in the quarter finals of the Denmark Open in October.
Against Yamaguchi, Sindhu trailed 0-4 in the first game but quickly came to level terms at 4-4 and then 9-9.
The duo were neck and neck but Sindhu zoomed ahead from 15-14 to reach 18-15. She then took three straight points to pocket the first game.
The second game was also a tight contest as the two players were levelled at 10-10 before Yamaguchi shifted the gear to pocket it without much fuss.
In the deciding game, Sindhu and Yamaguchi were tied at 5-5 before the Indian reeled off seven straight points. The Japanese made a sort of comeback by narrowing down the gap to 11-13 but Sindhu cruised to 17-12.
Yamaguchi was not the one to throw the towel without a fight and took the shoreline to 19-19. But Sindhu saved the best for the last as she won two consecutive points to win the third game and pocket the match.
Lakshya loses
Young Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen, however, lost in straight games to reigning Olympic champion and world No.1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the men’s singles semi-finals. Axelsen beat Sen 21-13 21-11 in 39 minutes.
