All England Open 2018: Akane Yamaguchi ousts PV Sindhu in a battle of stamina vs power

It was poised to be yet another epic clash between the World No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi and World No. 3 PV Sindhu in the All England Open second women's singles semi-finals, with Sindhu heading into this match with an advantage of beating her opponent at the Badminton Asia Team Championships last month in straight games.

But, as luck would have it, a combination of grit, determination and of course, stamina made Akane Yamaguchi clinch the game away from Sindhu's stronghold to set up another epic clash with World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying in the final.

The Indian looked comfortable when the match commenced and, before the break, she had already bagged a healthy lead of six points over her Japanese rival. As the game progressed, Yamaguchi tested every ounce of strength in Sindhu and set up a fighting comeback to bring the score to 16-17 before giving away two easy points. With this lead in hand, Sindhu grabbed the last point to win the first game 21-19 that lasted 20 minutes and had the longest rally of 33 shots.

Through that late comeback, Yamaguchi just sprinkled a few hints of what was about to come for Sindhu in the coming games.

Yamaguchi comes back

Akane Yamaguchi

With the start of the second game, Yamaguchi started to pull the rabbits out of her hat as she tested the grit of Sindhu by tiring her with long rallys and some accurately placed drop shots. She clinched her first point with a smash just down the line, confusing Sindhu whether to take it or leave it and she chose to leave it handing her opponent her first point in the second game.

Next Yamaguchi started the diagonal game, pushing Sindhu around the entire court with rallies now beyond 26 shots, forcing Sindhu to hand over some very important points in the middle of the second game that added to her lead. Yamaguchi then decided to tire her opponent by pushing her back to the court and then played a few shots very close to the net.

At a certain point, Sindhu looked tired and her concentration was seen dwindling due to which she handed a few more points and with them, the second game to her opponent. The second game saw the longest rally of the entire match that lasted 44 shots.

Before the start of the third game, Yamaguchi very well knew that her opponent Sindhu had been on the court for around 3 hours and 26 minutes over the last three matches. In contrast, Yamaguchi was much fresher as she was on the court for only two hours and seven minutes and this statistic proved to be the vital cog that she exploited to the fullest by playing longer rallies, cross court smashes and drop shots and the diagonal play, exhausting everything out of Sindhu before the third game could even begin.

With the advent of the third game, Sindhu looked haplessly tired but she gathered all her determination to put up a tough fight against her opponent. She gathered her wits to lead the Japanese by 11-7 until the break.

After the interval, Yamaguchi quickly brought the score to 11-13. From this point started a stern test for both players as they both showed a resolute defiance to bow down.

Sindhu and Yamaguchi closed the points down and shared the spoils on many points together until they were deadlocked at 17-17. From this point of the match, fatigue started to startle the mind of Sindhu and she squandered her lead to give two match points to Yamaguchi. With the match in sight, the World No. 2 did clinch the game with four straight points to take the decider and the match.

Even after the conclusion of the match, it had most of the spectators spellbound by the longest rallies and they were all praising both the players. The longest rally of the match came in the third game that had a whopping 51 shots.

But for Sindhu, the final outcome made it a match for her to forget and focus on the mistakes committed and not to repeat them in the upcoming tournaments. Before the start of the match, the head-head record between Sindhu and Yamaguchi was 6-3. Sindhu's win over Yamaguchi the last month made her a favourite for her first final at this tournament. But fate had other plans for her and she was ousted by a very talented young player in Yamaguchi.