Yamaguchi defeated Sindhu 13-21, 21-19, 21-16 to book a place in the final where she will face China's Wang Zhi Yi on Sunday.
Follow Us
Star Indian shuttler PV Sindhu ended her Asian Badminton Championships campaign with a bronze medal after going down fighting to Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi in the women’s singles semi-final clash in Manila on Saturday. The two-time Olympic medalist started brightly by winning the opening game 21-13 but let a five-point lead slip in the second before losing it 19-21. Yamaguchi won the decider 21-16 to book her place in the title decider. This is Sindhu’s second medal in the tournament, she had claimed a bronze in the 2014 Gimcheon edition. Sindhu came into the match high on confidence after getting the better of China’s He Bing Jiao in a thrilling three set encounter in the previous round, but the Japanese proved too hot for the Hyderabad shuttler to handle.
So close yet so far ?@pvsindhu goes down 21-13, 19-21, 16-21 in a hard fought gruelling WS semifinal against world champion ??’s Akane Yamaguchi and ends her #BAC2022 with a ? medal.#Badminton pic.twitter.com/Q2BUQdixVM
— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) April 30, 2022
Read more:
Korea Open 2022: China’s Weng Hong Yang stuns Jonatan Christie to clinch the men’s singles title
Sindhu, who had won the Syed Modi international and Swiss Open, started the game positively by racing to a 11-5 lead. Yamaguchi wasn’t able to put any pressure on Sindhu in the early going and the Japanese star committed too many errors and Sindhu took full advantage of it, while she kept things simple. After the interval, Sindhu continued to dominate proceedings and quickly made the score 14-6. Although Yamaguchi showed some resistance to win a couple of points and close the gap to 11-16, Sindhu cut off the run on time, and then went on to pocket the first game in 16 minutes.
Yamguchi started the second game with a wide shot but then took four successive points to take a three points lead. The second game was looking more like a tight affair as Sindhu levels the score at 4-4 with a brilliant down the line smash. And then Sindhu displayed her power and class to make the score 11-6, going into the interval. Just when it looked like the Indian would be heading into another final, the Japanese player came out all guns blazing to level the score at 15-15. Sindhu then tied it at 19-19 but Yamaguchi sealed the game with the tightest of net shots and took the match to the decider.
The momentum was now with Yamaguchi and she made a fine start to the final game, taking the first three points. Sindhu didn’t allow the Japanese to get too far and the scores were 7-11 at the final interval. After the break, Yamaguchi played some amazing shots to extend the lead to 14-9. The players are trading points, and Yamaguchi now has five match points. Sindhu sends one long at the end of a long 35-shot rally to make the score 18-14. The Japanese then secured the final game to go through to the final. Yamaguchi will meet Wang Zhi Yi for the title on Sunday. The Chinese shuttler had defeated South Korean An Se Young 10-21, 21-12, 21-16 to advance to the final.
