By Sandip Sikdar, IANS,
Lucknow : Second seed and favourite P.V. Sindhu of India failed to come out victorious in a thrilling women’s singles summit clash Sunday at the Syed Modi International India Grand Prix Gold badminton event here, going down to Indonesian seventh seed Lindaweni Fanetri.
The World No.24 lost 15-21, 21-18, 18-21 in a marathon match lasting one hour and 12 minutes at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium. Fanetri levelled their head-to-head to one-all, after having lost in the qualification rounds of the All England Open earlier this year.
The first game was completely dominated by the seventh seed. Fanetri was also aided by the unforced errors of Sindhu, who regularly hit-out her shots which landed outside the third court. Down by 5-11, the Hyderabadi could never come back and lost the game.
Sindhu came back strongly in the second game taking a lead of 12-5. Deceiving net play and superior reach helped her cause. The Indian excelled at the net in the penultimate game as she clinched 12 net points to Fanetri’s five.
The Indonesian came back strongly to almost level the game but with the crowd chanting her name, Sindhu clinched the last crucial points to take the match into the decider.
The decider was a thriller as it proved to be a neck-and-neck tie. But from 10-all Fanetri took the initiative, not giving too many opportunities, taking the lead 14-10.
The second seed fought back with some excellent cross-court smashes and levelled at 16-all, going on to take the lead in the match for the final time (17-16). But Fanetri won the next five out of six points to clinch the game and match in an exciting battle.
“Sindhu plays really well and, considering she is only 17, she has lot of titles to win in the future,” said the winner.
Being the favourite, Sindhu was short of words at her loss.
“I really can’t say much,” said a teary eyed Sindhu.
“She played well and did not give me too many opportunities to attack. I also made many errors which really took the game away from me. The match had too many rallies and Fanetri was defending well too.
“I got a bit nervous too at the end when she levelled at 17-all in the third game. I am thankful for the support and I am really sorry that I lost today,” added Sindhu.
Final results:
Women’s singles: 7-Lindaweni Fanetri (INA) bt 2-P.V. Sindhu (IND) 21-15, 18-21, 21-18.
Men’s doubles: 4-Sung Hyun Ko/Yong Dae Lee (KOR) bt Ji Wook Kang/Sang Joon Lee (KOR) 21-13, 21-19.
Mixed doubles: 2-Fran Kurniawan/Shendy Puspa Irawati (INA) bt Nipitphon Puangpuapech/Savitree Amitrapai (THA) 21-12, 24-22.