Dubai: It was in late August this year that Spain’s Carolina Marin and India’s P.V. Sindhu fought out a fiercely contested gold-medal match at the Rio Olympic Games. Four months later, however, the fates of these two highly talented badminton players could not be more different.
Marin, the former world No. 1 who claimed the Olympic gold, capitulated in straight sets to China’s Sun Yu, the current world No 6, in the opening match of the WBF’s Dubai World Superseries Final at the Hamdan Sports Complex. During the match, the Spaniard repeatedly complained to the umpire about the stalling tactics of Sun, whose legs were heavily bandaged.
But clearly she was having a bad day in the office and despite showing glimpses of staging a fightback when she saved eight match points in the second set, she suffered a career first defeat to Sun in three meetings at 21-18, 21-19.
Sindhu was a study in contrast. Showing greater mental focus and the ability to put her rival under pressure during the big points, she turned around a first set deficit to storm back for a 12-21, 21-8, 21-15 victory in Group B.
The 21-year-old, who was playing in her first World Superseries Finals before a cheering crowd of supporters, will meet Marin’s conqueror Sun Yu in her second group match today. “It’s my first time here but I’m really happy with the way I adapted and played in the final set,” said the 5 foot 9 inch youngster from Hyderabad.
“In the beginning I was a bit nervous, played a lot of negative shots and was not patient. But by the second game, I was alert and a lot more focused on my game.
Looking ahead to her next match, Sindhu said: “I recently played her in the China Open so it is not going to be an easy match. We know each other’s game and I think that it’s just that the strategy on the day who works it out, plays it on court and makes the changes to their game who will be the winner.”
In other matches in the same category, Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun eased past Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon 21-19 21-12, while 2014 champion Tai Tzu Ying (Chinese Taipei) also enjoyed a quick victory over China’s He Bingjiao, 21-16 21-13.
“I had very little rest after the Korea Masters as I rushed to the airport straight from the stadium,” said Sung, who won her home Grand Prix Gold title on Sunday. “I haven’t won a Superseries this year, so that’s motivation for me to do well here. Today was a good start. Hopefully I can continue to play at this level.”
No pressure
Mixed Doubles defending champions Chris Adcock and Gabrielle Adcock from England made a solid start to their campaign, winning their opening match against Japan’s Kenta Kazuno and Ayane Kurihara in just 34 minutes against. The husband-and-wife pairing won 21-15, 21-9.
“We don’t feel the pressure of being defending champions,” said Gabrielle. “We know if we play as good as we can, we’ll do well. We had a good start today.”
“It wasn’t as easy as it seemed,” added her partner.
“Even though we were ahead, we had to keep our concentration. There weren’t too many rallies; it was a bit tense. We’re happy with the good start. We play a couple of young Chinese pairs in this group. We’re looking forward to getting on court as it’s always a challenge to play them.”
In mixed doubles action, All England winners Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto scored an upset victory over their senior compatriots Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir. The younger pair easily defeated the Olympic champions in Group A, 21-11, 21-12.
In the men’s doubles too, three-time Superseries winners Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo/Marcus Fernaldi Gideon were taken the distance before defeating Angga Pratama/Ricky Karanda Suwardi 21-18, 17-21, 21-14.
However, recent Hong Kong Open champions Takeshi Kamura/Keigo Sonoda suffered a straight set 21-15, 21-17 defeat to Denmark’s Mads Conrad-Petersen/Mads Pieler Kolding.
