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A year after losing a narrow final to Akane Yamaguchi, PV Sindhu faces the World No. 2 Japanese in her very first match of the BWF World Tour Finals 2018 at Guangzhou, China on Wednesday. Since the blockbuster final, they have met five times, out of which the Indian has reigned supreme on four occasions.
The sixth-ranked Sindhu leads the second-ranked Yamaguchi 9-4 in their head-to-head record and should be the favourite going into this clash. Even last year, the Indian made short work of the Japanese in the group stages before succumbing to her in the summit clash.
Having said that, the Indian hasn’t been in the best of form in the lead-up to the year-ender. She lost her second round match at the Hong Kong Open and did not look very confident in the last tournament that she played. Sindhu needs to find her rhythm right from the word go, otherwise it could get difficult for the Indian to qualify for the semi-finals from such a packed group.
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Meanwhile, Sameer Verma earned his maiden berth at the BWF World Tour Finals thanks to a strong show at the Syed Modi International, where he successfully defended his title. Now the path gets tougher for him as his first opponent is none other than the in-form World No. 1 Kento Momota.
The World No. 14 did beat the Japanese this year itself, which leveled their head-to-head record at 1-1. But that can hardly be taken into account as that was way before Momota became the irrepressible player that he is now.
Schedule of matches involving Indians:
Akane Yamaguchi vs PV Sindhu at approx 11.40am local time/9.10am IST
Followed by
Kento Momota vs Sameer Verma
(You can find the entire schedule of Day 1 here.)
Here's everything you need to know about the BWF World Tour Finals 2018:
Tournament name: HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2018
Location: Guangzhou, China
Category: Season-ending championships
Date: Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Round: Group stage
Broadcast: Live telecast on Star Sports 1 and Star Sports 1 HD from 8am IST
Livestream: Hotstar.com
Live updates: On Sportskeeda
