Swiss Open: PV Sindhu falters at final hurdle, loses women's singles final to arch-rival Marin

Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu bagged silver after losing to former World No. 1 Carolina Marin in straight games in the summit showdown at the Swiss Open on Sunday.

World champion Sindhu went down 12-21, 5-21 to her nemesis from Spain in a lop-sided women's singles battle which lasted only 35 minutes.

Sindhu went 0-2 down at the start of the first game before making a comeback to take a 6-4 lead at the mid-game interval. But Olympic gold medallist Marin soon changed gears and started finding the lines with her smashes to take a 9-6 lead.

Sindhu reduced the margin to 8-11 but Marin took it a step further with a flurry of jump smashes and eventually pocketed the first game.

Update from Basel!@Pvsindhu1 lost the first game 12-21 to @CarolinaMarin #badminton#YonexSwissOpen pic.twitter.com/paFrlNQf0E

— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) March 7, 2021

In the second game, Marin sent smashes out of Sindhu’s reach to again zoom into a 5-0 lead. In no time, Marin raced to a 8-2 lead and then changed ends with a twelve-point advantage at 14-2.

World No. 3 Marin was on fire and gathered points at will, moving to 18-3 after notching up four straight points. It seemed like the end of the battle for the 2016 Rio Olympics silver medallist Sindhu, as Marin was in no mood to let go of her grip on the coveted gold medal and eventually sealed the battle 21-12, 21-5.

Three-time world champion Marin looked an unstoppable force throughout the match with sharp smash shots, clever net-work and an unmatched level of aggression and agility.

Earlier in the day, top-seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark bagged the men's singles title with a 21-16, 21-6 win against Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn.

Sindhu's third successive loss to Marin in this year

This was Marin's third successive win over Sindhu this year. Earlier, she won both Super 1000 tournaments in Thailand before finishing as a runner-up at the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals in January. The reigning Olympic champion Marin also leads the head-to-head record 8-5 against World No. 7 Sindhu.

Carolina Marin and P V Sindhu

Sindhu will next be seen in action at the Super 1000 All England Championships tournament, to be held between March 17-21.

Sindhu's quest to qualify for 2021 Tokyo Olympics

Indian shuttlers have a good shot at booking a berth for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics with several Super series tournaments drawing on. With the BWF rankings at stake for the Olympics, the players will look to give their all and make a case for their inclusion in the Tokyo contingent.

Important points earned for the #Olympic qualification and a great week of badminton. Time to regroup and get back to the drawing board. Good luck with the upcoming matches.#badminton#YonexSwissOpen #swissopen #SwissOpen2021 pic.twitter.com/JJCUJn4TVI

— BAI Media (@BAI_Media) March 7, 2021

PV Sindhu, seventh in the rankings in the women's singles, looks well-placed for a possible Olympic qualification. In the men's singles, B Sai Praneeth is placed 13th with 51,527 points. The top 16 in the men's and women's singles and the top eight doubles pairs shall qualify with a maximum of two entries from each country, on the basis of Olympic qualification rules.