Badminton: PV Sindhu beats Carolina Marin to lift India Open title

P.V Sindhu partially avenged her defeat to Carolina Marin in last year’s Olympic final as she delighted the home crowd by winning the Badminton World Federation (BWF) India Super Series title in New Delhi. The Rio Olympic silver medalist won over Saina in two back to back sets.

With this win, double World Championship bronze medallist Sindhu took a 7-4 lead in career meetings against Sung, the 2015 World Championship bronze medallist. But on Sunday it was Sindhu who kept Marin waiting on several occasions. After the interval, the players stayed close and it looked like it could go anybody’s way with Sindhu maintaining her composure to run away with the opening game.

The Bollywood stars took to Twitter to express their excitement on Sindhu’s success. In both the games, the Indian deliberately threw caution to the wind and came out guns blazing from the beginning.

“Self belief helped me get out of the tricky situation to remain in contention for the title”, Sindhu told reporters.

Sindhu was off to a good start taking a crucial 5-1 lead in the first game. The title match later today is sure to attract a large number of people to Siri Fort and Marin has to make sure he remains calm amidst the sea of supporters, who are expected to root for the local shuttler.

The other day, Sindhu had said that if needed coach P Gopichand will be at the courtside. Marin hits a smash to inch towards a first game win.

“At Dubai finals we played and I beat her but she defeated me at PBL (Premier Badminton League) but this time it will be at Delhi so I will have support”, she said. She is prepared to rough it out against any opponent. “It was after a long time that I have reached a final”. It has been long time that I had come so far in any tournament in a long time. “My best performance was at the Olympics but since then I have had a few injuries but yes, I am getting back”, Marin said.

“She might know my game and I might know her”. Viktor clinches men’s crown Earlier on Sunday, Viktor Axelsen was in a mad rush during the men’s final.