Published 20:09 IST, August 25th 2019
PV Sindhu creates history as she wins maiden BWF World Championship
P V Sindhu on Sunday became the first Indian to win badminton World Championships gold by beating familiar rival Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in a lop-sided final.
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P V Sindhu on Sunday became the first Indian to win badminton World Championships gold by beating familiar rival Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in a lop-sided final on Sunday in Basel, Switzerland. The Indian won 21-7 21-7 in the summit clash that lasted just 38 minutes.
PV Sindhu breaks the final jinx
Two years after being robbed of the gold by Okuhara in an epic 110-minute final at Glasgow that went down as one of the greatest battles in badminton history, Sindhu finally exorcised the ghost of that heart-wrenching loss with a completely dominating win over the same opponent. It was Sindhu's fifth World Championships medal -- joint-most for a woman singles player with former Olympics and world champion Zhang Ning of China -- to go with the two successive silvers and a couple of bronze medals. Sindhu has also won Olympic silver in 2016 Rio Games, silver at Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, an Asian Games silver at Jakarta and the BWF World Tour Finals last year.
PV Sindhu has an easy outing against Nozomi Okuhara
The Olympic silver medalist had an easy outing against her long-time rival Nozomi Okuhara as she did not have to break a sweat against the world number 4 Japanese shuttler. Okuhara had no clue and answers for Sindhu's attacking strokeplay. Nozomi Okuhara had defeated PV Sindhu in the final of the same event in 2017. However, this time, she was never in the contest against her Indian opponent. All Okuhara managed to get right on the big day was winning the first point of the first game. After that, it was PV Sindhu all the way as she scored eight straight points. With great difficulty, Nozomi Okuhara managed another point as she trailed Sindhu 11-2 heading into the interval. Post the interval, the Japanese shuttler managed to get five more points but PV Sindhu was way too good for her as she very quickly completed the first set by adding 10 points and thereby, winning the set 21-7.
18:12 IST, August 25th 2019