JUST after PV Sindhu lost in the quarterfinal of the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, she was exhausted. She had played three matches in about 24 hours and in the last game of her match against Chen Yufei her tank seemed empty. She lost. All she could tell after the match was that it was definitely tiring but at this juncture of her career she would like to take one year at a time and enjoy it as much.
On Saturday, Sindhu did not look exhausted as she took care of her net game, where she had looked a bit vulnerable at the Asian Games, especially in the final games of the entire season. Against the much younger Hina Akechi of Japan, Sindhu was rock solid right from the first game. She looked poised for a straight win but Akechi made a remarkable comeback in the second game of the semifinal of French Open.
And when the curse of the final game started to loom above Sindhu, she could find ways to master Akechi’s shots, rallies and drops. She did not give up and seemed, even at this stage of the tournament, to have enough in her to pull up such an incredible win in Paris.
The two-time Olympic medallist had some long rallies, something she is not very keen to have, but Sindhu managed to corner Akechi. There were times when her net game helped Sindhu earn points in the final game. The score-line 21-10, 20-22, 21-16 in a one-hour-and-13-minute at the Arena Grand Paris was a testament to the close contest. It had all the ingredients of a weekend blockbuster. She will meet World No 1 An Se Young in the final.
Sindhu started strongly, comfortably taking the opening game 21-10 but Akechi held the lead through the latter half of the second game, with the Indian briefly moving ahead at 16. The Japanese player moved ahead in the final push to win the game and enter the decider.
The decider was close with both players level at multiple points. Sindhu dominated most of the game before Akechi fought back to level the scores at 14-all and take a 16-15 lead. With the Japanese player looking exhausted and Sindhu mastering all her experience, the India star remained error-free and won six consecutive points. She closed out the match 21-16.