Ace Indian badminton player and two World Championship Bronze medallist, PV Sindhu, eked out a hard-fought three-game win over Thailand’s Busanan Ongbumrungphan to enter the quarter-finals of the USD 300,000 Yonex-Sunrise India Open Super Series badminton tournament.
Sindhu was a little wary during the match and committed a few unforced errors before surpassing Busanan 17-21 21-19 21-16 in a women’s singles match that lasted an hour and 16 minutes here at the Siri Fort Sports Complex.
After losing the opening match, Sindhu changed gears and nosed ahead to a slender 11-9 lead in the second game.
From 14-11, the Thai girl started catching up with Sindhu after the Indian failed to connect a few strokes. One such miscued shot at the net took Busanan to 14-14 and she soon grabbed a couple more to have a 16-14 advantage. The Indian came up with a couple of smashes to draw parity at 17-17.
With Busanan finding the net and hitting wide, Sindhu took a two-point lead at 20-18. The Indian hit one at the net but roared back into contest when her rival found the net.
In the decider, Sindhu lagged 0-4 early on but she managed to grab six consecutive points to march ahead to a 6-4 lead. The Indian stretched the lead to 10-7 but blew it away with Busanan entering the break with an 11-10 lead.
After the interval, Sindhu started dominating the proceedings and grabbed an 18-15 lead before another wide shot broke the rhythm.
A fierce rally ended with an unforced error from the Thai player. Sindhu then grabbed the next two points when Busanan failed to connect a couple of strokes at the forecourt.
It was a close match and it is good to have a tough opponent early in the tournament because it helps you to adjust with the conditions. I was playing her after a long time and I made lot of unforced errors. I was leading and then giving away points. Even some line judgements were not right. I am happy to win and hope to play better tomorrow.PV Sindhu
Among other Indians, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy suffered a 19-21 12-21 loss to Chinese Taipei’s Chen Hung Ling and Chi-Lin Wang, while Jishnu Sanyal and Shivam Sharma lost 17-21 15-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Lee Sheng Mu and Tsai Chia Hsin in another men’s doubles match.
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