Sindhu loses to Okuhara in final of Thailand Open

Nozomi Okuhara won 21-15 21-18 in 50 minutes

Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu’s title drought this year continued as she suffered a straight-game defeat against Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in the summit clash of the USD 350,000 Thailand Open World Tour Super 500 badminton tournament here on Sunday.

Second seed Sindhu struggled with her consistency throughout the duel as fourth seeded Okuhara dominated the proceedings to beat the Indian 21-15 21-18 in exactly 50 minutes

World No.3 Sindhu showed glimpses of her best against world No.8 Okuhara, who besides the initial part of the second game, looked in complete control over the proceedings. Okuhara took no time to get her grip on the match by taking a 6-2 lead in the opening game.

Sindhu did not give up and used her long reach to great effect and came up with some aggressive cross-court smashes to reduce the margin to 15-17.

But then, Okuhara came up with some really aggressive net play which forced Sindhu to commit unforced errors and the Japanese pocketed four straight points to wrap up the first game in her favour.

Sindhu came out all guns blazing in the second game and showed aggressive intent, along with delicate net play to race to a 5-1 lead.

But, some unforced errors and wrong judgements from the Indian allowed the Japanese to pocket five straight points to alter the scoreline to 7-6 in her favour.

Both the players went neck-and-neck thereafter till 14 apiece when Okuhara once again upped the tempo of her game by a few notches to take a 16-17 lead over her opponent.