The Sports-India Community

Sindhu scored a dominating win against World Champion Yamaguchi losing only 22 points ... With this she won the group and facing Chinese Yufei Chen in the semis ... Tzu Ying Tai's challenge got over in the group.

At $1M Dubai World Superseries Finals 2017, United Arab Emirates (Superseries Premier)

Men's Singles - Group B
Kidambi Srikanth (IND,4) l Shi Yuqi (CHN,8) 17-21 21-19 14-21
Viktor Axelsen (DEN,1) bt Chou Tien Chen (TPE,7) 21-16 14-21 21-15

Women's Singles - Group A
Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,3) bt Akane Yamaguchi (JPN,2) 21-9 21-13
Sayaka Sato (JPN,15) bt He Bingjiao (CHN,9) 21-18 21-16

[SF] Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,3) vs Yufei Chen (CHN,8)
[SF] Akane Yamaguchi (JPN,2) vs Ratchanok Intanon (THA,6)

Dominant performance by Sindhu at group stage winning all her 3 matches with ease. Can she continue that level of performance in the SF and F.

Srikanth lost his third straight match in 3 games against the Chinese Shi Yuqi. Forgettable tournament for Shrikanth.

Sindhu is in her first final of the Superseries Finals ... She defeated Chinese Yufei Chen in the straight games ... After winning the first game Sindhu took early lead, but after 11-15 down Chen tried fight back to take 16-15 lead ... Sindhu kept her composure and won the match converted first match point ... In the final, Sindhu will be facing Yamaguchi, whom she defeated comfortably in her group match.

At $1M Dubai World Superseries Finals 2017, United Arab Emirates (Superseries Premier)

[SF] Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,3) bt Yufei Chen (CHN,8) 21-15 21-18
[SF] Akane Yamaguchi (JPN,2) bt Ratchanok Intanon (THA,6) 17-21 21-12 21-19

Yamaguchi won another match against Sindhu on better stamina and patience ... Sindhu took a 13-8 lead from 5-8 down, Yamaguch reduced it to 14-13 but Sindhu won next 6 points and converted the 2nd game point ... In the second game, Sindhu was leading 8-5, but from here Yamaguchi took a control of the game and won it comfortably ... In the final game, some excellent long rallies played between Sindhu and Yamaguchi ... Yamaguchi executed her plan perfectly as she tired Sindhu playing long rallies ... Sindhu took an early 4-0 lead and kept a couple of points lead until 13-11 ... Yamaguchi caught her at 13-all and took a crucial lead at 15-17 ... After that, she kept the lead and won the match converting the first match point in 94 minutes... Both players were visibly tired while playing last 8-10 points and in that, Yamaguchi showed patience and Sindhu committed unforced errors.

At $1M Dubai World Superseries Finals 2017, United Arab Emirates (Superseries Premier)

Women's Singles Final
Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,3) l Akane Yamaguchi (JPN,2) 15-21 21-12 21-19

So, Sindhu remains a silver medalist again for the third time in a major tournament in last 2 years.All 3 matches she lost were of long duration and Sindhu looked out of gas late in the third game.

She will need to improve her fitness to get right to the top although being #2 in 3 major world level events is not bad at all especially by Indians standards.

Maybe also a bit more patience, nerve, and confidence at times towards the end.

I don't think fitness is an issue with PV Sindhu. She has lost all three finals by extremely narrow scores in the final game (often 19-21, like today). So perhaps more an issue of temperament when it comes down to the crunch points.
Srikanth's surprising spree of 3 losses here was startling, and somewhat worrisome.

It was a good match.