All England Open 2018: Sindhu enters quarter final to face Okuhara

PV Sindhu survived the scare against the Thai opponent Nitchaon Jindapol to reach the quarter-finals of the All England Open badminton tournament in Birmingham on Thursday.

The world no. 3 Indian subsided during the mid-way and fought back to overcome the Thai shuttler with 21-13, 13-21, 21-18 in the 67-minute encounter.

After defeating Ratchanok Inthanon on the opening round, encumbrance on Sindhu has increased as Jindapol is as tougher as her producing some intense strokes.

Sindhu has been maintaining upper hand since the beginning. Sindhu cruised to 7-3 lead after winning a long rally. With the superb backhand stroke, Indian gained another point to make 8-3. By the halftime Sindhu led with 11-5.

After the breather, Sindhu went down the wire with the dominance. Thai kept on hitting the net and wide to let Sindhu grab points, who saved the first game with 21-13.

In the second game, Jindapol learnt better from the previous game and changed the strategy to be more attacking and quickly pocketed a 7-3 lead with a straight smash. Sindhu’s wide and inaccuracy of backhand returns allowed Jindapol to zoom to a 11-3 lead.

Sindhu narrowed the gap but Jindapol wrist deceptive returns at the net and powerful smashes maintained the lead with 14-10. Jindapol enjoyed a lucky net chord and Sindhu sent one long as the Thai shuttler lead 17-10 with another superb return.

Sindhu tried reducing the gap with 13-17. Wrong baseline judgements and two successive wide shots from Sindhu gave her opponent the high of seven game points and evetually the game to push the match to the decider.  

Third game is completely Sindhu’s mainstay on focus. With more power and pumping up, Sindhu led with 3-0 and then with 8-5. Jindapol under pressure, narrowed the gap with 7-8, yet trailed. Sindhu held a slender 11-9 lead at the interval after Jindapol hit wide on both side of the flank

Sindhu net chord gave Jindapol the joyful lead as former couldn’t return the bird. The Thai shuttler moved to a 15-12 lead after Sindhu erred in her cross court return.

The lanky Indian executed amazing cross-court followed by powerful smashes to par the score with 16-16. The game has become more intense with nail-biting rallies. Jindapol relieved Sindhu with her net shots.

Sindhu will face her nemesis Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the quarter finals on Friday.