 "PV Sindhu in a file photo. PTI")
PV Sindhu survived tense moments before progressing to the second round but it was curtains for Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth and Priyanshu Rajawat at the Badminton Asia Championships on Wednesday.
Sindhu, two-time Olympic medallist, is desperately seeking to rediscover her form ahead of the Summer Games in Paris. She almost blew away a five-point advantage in the deciding game before managing a gritty 18-21, 21-14, 21-19 win against World No. 33 Goh Jin Wei from Malaysia.
Sindhu had lost to the Malaysian player the last time they meet in the Sudirman Cup, though the Indian has a 4-1 head-to-head record against her.
Next up for Sindhu is China’s Han Yue, against whom the Indian has a flawless 5-0 record.
It was, however, a difficult day for Olympic-bound Sen, who lost 19-21, 15-21 to top seed Shi Yu Qi, and Srikanth, who suffered a 14-21, 13-21 loss against Indonesia’s Anthony Ginting in the opening round.
Talented Rajawat also crashed out in the men’s singles opening round. Rajawat was no match for eighth seed Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia, losing 9-21, 13-21 in 39 minutes.
It was also curtains for the Panda sisters – Rutuparna and Swetaparna – in the opening round of women’s doubles, losing 8-21, 13-21 against Zhang Shu Xian and Zheng Yu W of China.
MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila, too, were left heartbroken after losing 21-23, 21-19, 24-26 against seventh seeded Chinese pair of Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand too went down 2-21, 11-21 to fourth seeded Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning in women’s doubles opener to hurt their faint Paris Olympics qualification hopes.
Malvika Bansod and Aakarshi Kashyap also faltered on the opening hurdle, losing to Korea’s Sim Yu Jin and Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan respectively.
Sindhu vs Jin Wei
The continental championship provides a chance to Sindhu, on the comeback trail after recovering from an injury, to test her wares against some of the world’s best shuttlers. The Indian had to dig deep after losing the opening game.
She fought her way back into the contest and kept herself afloat despite lagging in the decider, before turning things around to move to five match points.
But that flow was disrupted as Sindhu squandered four consecutive points before her opponent found the net.
The two were neck-and-neck at the start before Sindhu committed three judgement errors at the backline and then sprayed one wide as Jin Wei took a slender 11-9 lead at the break.
Sindhu played some fine cross-court returns and also looked to add variation from the back but she committed too many unforced errors. A low return from front court went wide to hand five game points to Jin Wei.
Sindhu sent one to the corner and then unleashed an over-the-head drop to stay afloat before floating one out.
Sindhu made an attacking start after the change of sides, leading 4-1. But unforced errors again came back to haunt her as she hit long twice and found the net two times to allow Jin Wei make it 5-5. The Indian, however, managed to take a two-point cushion at the interval with a smash.
The Indian faltered to reach at the front court a few times as it was 13-13. But Sindhu soon came out with a flurry of smashes to grab six game points and sealed it with a forehand hand drive.
In the decider, Sindhu gave away a 1-5 lead at the start but she slowly started finding her mark again and moved to 5-7 with a superlative cross-court smash.
Jin tried to make Sindhu ran to the forehand corner and then catch her at the net and it worked for some time before the Indian wriggled out with her attacking returns.
A net error from Sindhu gave two-point cushion to the Malaysian at the interval but the Indian clawed back from 10-13 down with three points as Jin netted one and sent the shuttle wide next.
Then Indian took the lead when Jin Wei sent a cross-court return wide. Errors crept in the Malaysian’s game as she found the net or sprayed wide, allowing Sindhu to move to 17-14.
A couple of brutal smash put Sindhu just two points away as she soon pocketed five match points with another precise return at the back. Just then, Jin Wei found the line twice with her returns and Sindhu too sprayed into the net as four points evapourated.
But then Jin Wei sent her backhand drive to net after another rally as Sindhu was relieved.
With PTI inputs