New Delhi: World championship bronze medallist P.V. Sindhu continued to take giant strides towards asserting herself as the rising star of Indian badminton, outclassing Michelle Li of Canada 2115, 21-12 to lift the Macau Grand Prix gold title on Sunday.
The top seeded Indian, who has now bagged her second title of the year, had gone into the tournament a bit under pressure to regain her form and showed that a month of training at the Gopichand Badminton Academy was the right preparation for the tournament.
The 18-year-old, who defeated China's Qin Jinjing in the semi-final, concentrated on playing percentage badminton and that approach was evident even in the final when she earned most of her points by forcing her opponent to make mistakes.
In the first game, Sindhu raced to a 7-0 lead within just two minutes of the start of play before Li finally registered herself on the score sheet. But the Indian was relentless in her attack and never allowed any breathing space to her world number 30 rival.
Although Li managed to reduce the gap to 6-9 at one stage, Sindhu managed to keep herself in front. In the end, it took just 16 minutes for Sindhu to pocket the first game.
The second game started on a slightly even note with both players going neck-and-neck for the first few minutes. The scores were level at 5-5 with Li displaying better command over netplay.
But Sindhu eventually broke through to go into the lead and was placed comfortably at 11-6 when the break was taken.
The Indian did not let the momentum shift even once after that as she piled on the points, showing better control of the baseline to emerge champion.
“I was confident going into the final after I defeated the Chinese player and knew that if I did not make mistakes, I can win the title,” Sindhu said later.
The Malaysian Open champion said she was extremely happy to end the year on a high because almost every player was playing well and that made every match crucial.
National coach Pullela Gopichand said they had pulled Sindhu out of the China Open to put in a month-long training stint and the plan worked very well.
“We worked extensively on speed and aggression while at the academy during the preparations for the tournament and she executed it well in Macau,” Gopichand said.
Madhumita Bisht, who is accompanying the team, said, “Sindhu was a bit nervous in the earlier rounds but the way she played in the semi-finals and the finals, she thoroughly deserved the crown.” Sindhu walked away richer by $9,000 from the event which offered a total prize money of $120,000. The year has been a remarkable one for the Hyderabadbased shuttler.
Besides the Malaysia Open triumph, she also became India’s first women’s singles medallist at the World Championships with backto-back wins against fancied Chinese rivals.
This was India’s first singles medal at the World Championships since Prakash Padukone won a bronze at the 1983 edition.
I was confident going into the final after I defeated the Chinese player and knew that if I did not make mistakes, I can win the title -P.V. SINDHU shuttler We worked extensively on speed and aggression while at the academy during the preparations for the tournament and she executed it well in Macau -P. GOPICHAND National coach.
