A fighting PV Sindhu failed to cross the final hurdle as the World No. 5 Sung Ji Hyun proved too strong in the end in the semi-finals of the Dubai World Superseries Finals 2016 on Saturday. The Korean, who had been unbeaten so far in this tournament, rebounded from a second-game deficit to clinch the 21-15, 18-21, 21-15 win in 1 hour 16 minutes.
Sindhu had a 6-3 head-to-head record over Sung coming into this match and had prevailed in three of their last four meetings. The last time they contested a match was at the China Open semi-finals where the Rio Olympic silver medallist came back from three match points down to stun the 25-year-old.
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But this time there was no chance to repeat such an act as the Korean was in command for most of the match.
She staved off Sindhu’s challenge to build an early 9-6 lead and banked on her impenetrable defence to put the Indian on the backfoot for the remainder of the game. She soared to 17-14 and then wrapped up the opener, 21-15.
In an absolutely smashing show of attack versus defence, the two were locked in a gritty battle in the early stages of the second game. The 21-year-old Indian managed to inch ahead 11-10 at half-time only to see the brilliant Sung coming back for 18-18.
Some superb anticipation from Sindhu at that point forced the Korean to rush and find her shots blocked by the tape and the Indian rode on it to sneak out the second game, 21-18.
Sung succeeded in erasing the memories of that setback pretty soon and opened up a swift 4-1 lead in the decider. As Sung’s unshakeable defence took the centrestage, the World No. 10 started finding the proceedings more and more difficult to counter.
The World No. 5 surged to 11-6 at the lemon break and jumped to a six-point advantage at 16-10. The Indian clawed her way back to 12-16 and then 15-19 but that was all she could do.
The sublime Sung dashed her hopes by closing out the match soon after to advance to the final where she will meet the top seed Tai Tzu Ying.
Sindhu’s memorable 2016 thus wraps up
This wraps up an unforgettable season for the Pullela Gopichand protégé who fully blossomed into a title contender this year. Displaying oodles of maturity, calmness and a highly-improved defensive game, the Indian not only clinched a historic silver medal at Rio but also grabbed her maiden Superseries title at the China Open.
The two were the biggest highlights of her 2016 season where she also added the Malaysia Masters title, besides reaching the Hong Kong Open final.
There is no doubt that her success has taken Indian badminton to stratospheric heights and expectations will be even higher in 2017.
