P V Sindhu beats Carolina Marin to win India Open Super Series

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NEW DELHI: India’s Olympic silver medallist P.V. Sindhu defeated Spanish top seed Carolina Marin 21-19, 21-16 in the final of the India Open Super Series badminton championships at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here, on Sunday. Marin had defeated Sindhu in the Rio Olympics to clinch gold.

Sindhu was in superlative form as she took only took 47 minutes to win her maiden home super series crown, in front of a partisan, cheering, ecstatic crowd. The win leveled Sindhu’s head-to-head record against Marin to 5-5. Sindhu had last defeated Marin in the BWF Super Series in Dubai last year. this win, however, was sweet revenge for the Rio loss.

The match saw a see-saw battle, though Sindhu took an early lead in both the games, and in the final analysis, that proved to be the differennce in the match.

Sindhu was steady as she took a 5-0 lead in the first game. Marin slowly found her feet on court and narrowed the gap. Sindhu, however, had a two points lead, 11-9, going into the break, and the match was set to be a thriller.

The Spaniard showed why she is No. 3 in the world, by make a strong comeback in the end stages of the first game, charging to a 18-17 lead. However, she couldn’t maintain the momentum. Sindhu was a different player today than she was in Rio. She stood up to the challenge, and reeled off 4 points, conceding only one, to clinch the first game 21-19.

Sindhu upped the ante in the second game with a strong and solid court game, to race to a 4-0 lead. She never relinquished that margin of lead, and the writing was on the wall as she inched towards victory with a 15-10 lead. Sindhu kep her never intact and her confidence high as she smashed and maneuvered her way to a historic 21-16 scoreline, to wrap up the match in straights games.