Enduring a tough season on the BWF World Tour this year so far, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu said that it was a morale-booster for her after scripting a thrilling victory against world No 6 Tomoka Miyazaki to storm into the Women’s Singles Round-of-16 at the China Open Super 1000 at the Olympic Sports Centre Gymnasium in Changzhou on Wednesday.
Facing the sixth seed from Japan, a resilient Sindhu (WR 15) clinched a 21-15, 8-21, 21-17 win in a fiercely contested three-game battle. After conceding the second game, the Indian ace opened up a commanding lead in the decider when she started from the better end of the court to eventually seal the win.
“It was a much-awaited win for me,” Sindhu told BWF. “In the third set, it was important for me to take the lead from the beginning. Because, you know, one side was very disadvantaged and one side was an advantage. So, it started off really good, but in the second game, it was hard for me to control. And in the third game, it was important that I take the lead and maintain that, because you never know anything is going to happen.”
Speaking about her teenaged opponent, who has sharply risen through the ranks in the last year or so, Sindhu said: “She’s doing well and she’s been doing well for quite some time now. It was important for me to win these matches so that it will also give me a morale boost and also that confidence. Sometimes I’ve been going three games, I’ve been coming close, yet I’ve been losing. So, I think it was a good win for me and I need to continue this tempo and keep going. But, yeah, she’s good, she’s doing well. Even though she’s young, she’s doing well and she’s in the top at the moment.”
Asked what satisfied her most about her performance, Sindhu said: “I was positive from the beginning. And at the same time, I think I just kept going and I’ve been very patient enough to, you know, keep the shuttle in the court and made fewer errors. I think that’s what I’m satisfied about.”
In Men’s Doubles, Satwik-Chirag, the World No. 12 duo, put up a dominant performance to progress into the Round-of-16. The former world No 1 pair from India outclassed Japan’s Kenya Mitsuhashi and Hiroki Okamura with a convincing 21-13, 21-9 straight-game win.
Meanwhile, in Women’s Doubles, the Panda sisters, Rutaparna and Swetaparna, lost 12-21, 13-21 defeat in 31 minutes against another sibling duo, the Yeung sister from Hong Kong Chna.
