World Badminton Championships, Glasgow,Scotland,(Aug 21-26)

[PKBasu]

Sindhu 17-16. 17-all. 18-17.

[Varma]

It's on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jeoihusd1ZA

- Varma

[PKBasu]

19-17. Hawkeye confirms.
19-18. Can't get any closer. But it can. 19-all.
19-20, 20-all. Sindhu serves. 20-21, 20-22.

An absolute thriller of a match, but Sindhu falls just short. 19-21, 22-20, 20-22. About 10 minutes longer than the next-longest match in the tournament. A couple of slightly bad mistakes at 19-all and 20-all at the net (hurried shots) put Sindhu in two tough positions. She narrowly saved the first match point, but couldn't save the second. Commentator says it is the best women's singles final she has ever seen.

[prasen9]

Okuhara seemed to be the better player in most of the last set to me. She had a sharper smash.

[Varma]

When a player gives it his or her all and come up short, there's really nothing we can do other than being extremely proud of the player. That's what Sindhu did today; gave it her all and made us proud! She is an amazing girl. Take a bow, Pusarla Venkata Sindhu!

- Varma

[PKBasu]

Okuhara seemed to be the better player in most of the last set to me. She had a sharper smash.

I don't know how you can say that. Sindhu's smash is much the sharper, but towards the end neither was smashing much. Apart from being 1-5 down, Sindhu led through most of the final game until 19-17. She tends to get a bit tight (just very very slightly tight) when she is ahead in a close game. From start to finish (apart from the 1-5 start to the third game), Sindhu was ahead most of the time in each of the games.

[prasen9]

And she was very close. There was really very little to choose. Just that I thought some of the drop shots or smashes towards the backhand of Sindhu near the net were very sharp for Okuhara and she was getting at almost all of Sindhu's smashes. So, I think at the end, Sindhu was simply sending her back towards her backhand and then trying to drop it near the net --- unfortunately, Okuhara retrieved most of these. Most points were decided by what seemed like random mistakes by a player since they were evenly matched and nobody was blowing another person off the court.

One of the most fiercely fought finals of all time.

[Varma]

...and the longest match at the World Championships too!

- Varma

[prasen9]

I don't know how you can say that. Sindhu's smash is much the sharper, but towards the end neither was smashing much.

Yes, but, towards the end, Okuhara got a few to drop sharply towards the backhand of Sindhu --- maybe a couple of points. Whereas most of Sindhu's points were what looked like unforced errors from Okuhara - no doubt that they were set up by Sindhu's placement, shots, etc. But, there were almost no smashes in the last match after it was 6-6 or something like that that Sindhu played that Okuhara could not retrieve well. So, maybe Okuhara was the better retriever. I don't know. But, it looked like a few sharp hits from Okuhara made the difference.

After it was 19-19, Sindhu made an unforced error in a very short rally by failing to hit the ball over the net. That decided the turn of events at the end.

[prasen9]

Why did she get a yellow card?

- Varma

Because she took too much between the points .

The referee called her by name to get on court. She ignored that and took out some chewy or food and sucked it in and then got on court. In general, they were both very tired. Maybe she decided to risk the yellow to get some food in to keep going.

[sameerph]

After it was 19-19, Sindhu made an unforced error in a very short rally by failing to hit the ball over the net. That decided the turn of events at the end.

Yes, that error and another at 20-20 proved critical. I think she went for risky shots at that stage which could have fetched her some rewards but unfortunately did not.

But, I find some merit in your point about smashes. It does not seem like Sindhu smashes were as incisive as they usually are. At Rio, she took a lot of points against Okuhara on unreturnable smashes. Perhaps, Okuhara has improved her retrieving ability.

[arjun2761]

Wow, that was an epic match between two gladiators in the end! While both were really tired, I though Okuhara was moving a little better than Sindhu in the end and that made the difference at least in the last part of the last game. Sindhu did a good job taking in her energy gels which seemed to keep her energized but came up a little short in the end. Otherwise, I think she has the better overall game than Okuhara.

[prasen9]

I do not understand the finer points of badminton that much. It may be that Okuhara's returns were better so Sindhu's smashes looked not effective. There was one on the backhand side of Okuhara that Sindhu got a point of, but that was towards the back of the court. It could also be that I expected more of Sindhu or that I am more critical of our home player. Neither player had something that was always working and a distinct advantage. At the end, it turned out as it turned out. If you play that many times, the results would be split near 50-50.

Sindhu is young. Hope she learns from this and tries to get better and keeps her nerves in the next big matches. Her time will come.

[jaydeep]

Take a bow Sindhu, we r very proud of your performance and your Silver medal!
Undoubtfully epic fiercely fought final match.

[sameerph]

Victor Axelsen beats Lin Dan in straight games to win the men's singles title for Denmark after 20 years.