Sindhu succumbs to nemesis An Se Young in final

Paris: India’s PV Sindhu put up a spirited fight against her nemesis and world no. 1 An Se Young of South Korea before going down in the women’s singles final of the USD 950,000 French Open Super 750 badminton tournament here on Sunday.

The 31-year-old Indian lost 21-16, 11-21, 12-21 to the Olympic champion, who clinched her fourth French Open title and 11th of the season.

“I fought for every point, I could win the first game and I was happy about it. But the second game, it was equal until five all or 5-4. After that, she took a lead and then maintained the lead.

“Even in the third set, I should have maintained the lead from 8-5. But unfortunate that she converted that into 11-9. So that’s where I felt the difference was. But a lot of positives to take from this match. Going forward, I need to work on them,” said the Indian great.

Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, used her reach and attacking strokes to take the opening game in 20 minutes. It was only the second time in her career that she had managed to take a game off the Korean, whom she has never beaten in 11 meetings so far.

There were a lot of net battles as the two engaged in exciting rallies to move from 4-4 to 7-7. During one such exchange, An pounced on a shuttle and sent it away, only to hit Sindhu on the face.

Sindhu took a two-point lead at the break with an overhead cross-court smash. She used her reach to good effect and soon moved to 15-11, with An making judgement errors at the backline.

An, who had won six of the last seven points in the first half of the decider, continued the momentum to reach 13-9. The quality of An’s game only improved as she extended her lead to 18-10. Another long shot gave the Korean eight match points, and she sealed the title at the first opportunity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The Hans India