PV Sindhu on Tuesday was able to secure the historic silver medal in Women's Badminton Singles at at the Asian Games.
The 23-year-old sportswoman from Hyderabad who got silver has failed to clinch the top position at the Asian as she lost 13-21 16-21 to Chinese Taipei's Tai in just 34 minutes.
Though it is big moment for the Olympic medalist, however, on an individual scale it’s her third defeat in a big final this year. She had lost the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games title clash to Saina Nehwal and the World Championship summit clash to Spain's Carolina Marin.
The Rio Olympic silver medallist had also lost the finals at India Open (to Beiwen Zhang) and Thailand Open (to Nozomi Okuhara) this year.
Having lost previous five encounters to Tai, world number three Sindhu needed to punch above her weight to tackle the Chinese Taipei ace.
Tai was in complete control from the beginning, taking the first five points of the match, with her trademark sharp returns.
Sindhu had no option but to attack. She returned harder to reduce the deficit to 4-6 but Tai consistently outsmarted Sindhu, using the deft drop shots very effectively.
The Taipei player was deceptive in her strokes and pulled away with a 17-10 lead.
She would change the angle and direction of the stroke very easily, making it difficult for Sindhu to anticipate and find appropriate returns. The first game was over in just 16 minutes.
To negate Tai's strong net game, Sindhu tried to push her back to the baseline in the second game. It got her points but she lost too many points due to unforced errors as some of the shots sailed over the lines.
The strategy could have been more effective if she had not missed drop shots after pinning Tai to baseline.
Initially, Sindhu was tied with Tai at 4-4 but as the game wore on, the Taipei shuttler continued to tighten her grip over the contest. An un-returnable smash put her ahead 15-10.
It was over soon with Tai earning a match point with Sindhu netting a shuttle at 15-19.
Sindhu saved the first match point with a smash winner on Tai's backhand. The Taipei ace sealed it with a drop shot winner.
