PV Sindhu wastes a match point to lose a tight India Open final against Beiwen Zhang

New Delhi: PV Sindhu seems to be making a habit of converting summit clashes into heart-stopping encounters and for the third time in under a year, she ended up on the losing side.

If it was the Japanese on the first two occasions, a similarly built but a lot slower American, Beiwen Zhang, saved a match point before beating the defending champion 21-18, 11-21, 22-20 in an hour and 69 minutes to clinch her maiden India Open title on Sunday.

Unlike her earlier two finals that went the distance at the World Championship in Glasgow and BWF Superseries Finals in Dubai last year, Sindhu was extremely tentative through out the encounter against Zhang. She paid the price by surrendering her crown in front of a vociferous crowd at the Siri Fort Sports Complex in New Delhi.

Sindhu, who was near flawless in her semi-final victory against former world No 1 Ratchanok Intanon, was extremely tentative at the start of the opening game and even complained about flash lights from the stands as he conceded the first three points. The 22-year-old did recover from there to take an 11-8 lead.

Despite nosing ahead, the world No 4 never looked comfortable throughout the 22-minute first game. She was looking to play longer rallies rather than use those powerful smashes that had served her well in the semi-final against Intanon.

This meant that Zhang, who loves to rally, could force the Indian into committing errors and ultimately regained the lead at 16-15. It was only at the business end of the game that Sindhu began to get aggressive again but that wasn’t enough to stage a turnaround.

The only time Zhang got things wrong was when she challenged a line call at 16-19 and Hawk Eye showed that the shuttle had fallen way inside the baseline, prompting the American to throw up her arms in despair. She, however, quickly regained her composure to clinch the game and add to the pressure Sindhu was already experiencing.

Sindhu controlled the rallies during the initial exchanges of the second game to race to a 11-4 lead. But instead of capitalising on the situation, the world championship silver medallist blew hot and cold in the second half of the game and could have been in trouble had Zhang not been guilty of making many more unforced errors as compared to the first game.

The errors from Zhang allowed the defending champion to clinch six straight points and take a 19-10 lead. Then, it was time for the decider.

However, the sluggish movements returned in the decider after the first few exchanges and Zhang made the most of two lucky net chords to clinch six straight points and take a 9-4 lead. Sindhu, though, did show a bit of resilience to claw her way back but Zhang went into the break with a two-point advantage at 11-9.

To her credit, Sindhu kept pace with her opponent after change of ends and even came up with a few flicks and deceptive drops that raised hopes of a turnaround.

The match looked like it was heading towards Zhang as she took a 19-17 lead. But then Sindhu won three consecutive points to get a match point.

However, a mistake with a net dribble followed by a lift that went wide two points later saw Sindhu once again concede the title.

Yuqi stars year with a title

Earlier, China’s Shi Yuqi began his quest for staking claim to the spot of the rightful heir of former world champions Lin Dan and Chen Long with a come-from-behind win over Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in his first tournament of the year.

The 21-year-old looked out of sorts for the major part of the opening game as Chou took a 16-12 lead thanks to his domination at the net. But Yuqi clinched eight of the next nine points with a solid display of defensive skills to draw first blood on the second game point.

The world No 8 was in control through out the second game as he took the lead at 5-2 with three consecutive points and then did not allow his opponent to draw level at any stage of the game.

Denmark, Indonesia split doubles titles

In the pair events, Indonesians Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon completed a hat-trick of India Open titles with a straight-games win over Dane’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, while their compatriots Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu clinched the women’s doubles crown.

Sukamuljo and Gideon, who won seven Superseries titles last year, have been unbeaten in 2018 so far and the world number one pair, popularly known as Minions, never looked in trouble against the fourth seeds, winning 21-14, 21-16 in just 38 minutes.

While Polii and Rahayu also managed to clear the final hurdle in straight games, the third seeds needed almost 20 minutes more to pack off second seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai 21-18, 21-15.

But the Indonesia sweep in doubles was averted by the Danish combination of Mathias Christiansen and Christinna Pedersen. The combination, which came together only last year, got the better of Praveen Jordan and Melati Oktavianti 21-14, 21-15 for their first major title having failed in the final in their earlier two attempts.