Seoul: PV Sindhu said Sunday that the heart-breaking World Championships (WC) final loss was not on her mind when she was plotting the downfall of Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara en-route to her Korea Open title here.
Playing back-to-back finals against Okuhara, The Indian exacted sweet revenge of her World Championship loss by defeating the Japanese 22-20, 11-21, 20-18 in yet another energy-sapping contest.
“I had lost to her after being 19-17 up in the World Championships but I was not thinking about that even though there were long rallies. I just kept telling myself ‘the next point is important’. I had to control the shuttle very much, so there was nothing in my mind, except for the next point,” Sindhu told reporters after being asked if the epic final was on her mind.
Sindhu also said that like the World Championships final, the one here was another energy-sapping affair. “Each point was very, very exhausting. In the first game, we were equal at 20-20 and I changed the course and won the game. In the second game all my shots were going out, I couldn’t control the shuttle. So I lost easy,” informed the Indian shuttler.
“In the third game, each and every point was important, even though I was leading at 11 points she came back and after 11 points, every point were big rallies like the World Championship and nobody was ready to back down,” she added.
With Sindhu and Okuhara playing back-to-back finals, expectations are high that they might clash again at the Japan Super Series Premier next week.
Asked if she would play rather someone else in the final, Sindhu said: “It is nothing like that, anybody is fine. If you have to win big tournaments, you have to beat tough players. People are talking about us because we met in two finals, close to one another.
“Even earlier everybody used to say it would be Carolina Marin but now they are saying may be it would be Okuhara again at Japan but I guess you have to play one or the other and you have to beat them to win.”
Chief national coach Pullela Gopichand said Sindhu worked on her attacking game ahead of the Korea Open and playing well in the remaining Super Series events will be important before she can think of Dubai Super Series Final in December.
“We prepared a bit on the attacking side, not that we had a great amount of time but we tried to cover the mistakes that she committed at Glasgow in whatever time we had to prepare for Korea,” Gopichand stated.
Titles in 2017
Syed Modi International: bt Gregoria Mariska 21-13, 21-14
India Open: bt Carolina Marin 21-19, 21-16
Korea Open bt Nozumi Okuhara 22-20, 11-21, 21-18
Total titles won: 10
2016 Rio Games: Silver
2017 World Championships: Silver
Agencies