P V Sindhu fails to solve Tai puzzle at Tokyo

Gold eludes the Indian and will now play for bronze against Biang

Hyderabad: All her dreams of an Olympic gold lay in tatters as P V Sindhu failed to solve the Tai Tzu Ying puzzle. The ruthless Chinese Taipei World No.1 destroyed Sindhu’s hopes with a clinical 21-18, 21-12 win in 38 minutes in the women’s singles match.

Tai will play for gold against China’s Chen Yu Fei, who put out her compatriot He Bing Jio. Sindhu will fight for bronze against the left-handed Chinese Biang Jo for the bronze medal.

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Sindhu was keen to change the colour of the medal from silver to gold but Tai put a spanner in the Indian wheel. The semifinal match had raised expectations and Sindhu also looked determined to stop the marauding Tai. But the Taipei player was invincible and unstoppable.

As a result the Chinese Taipei continued her stranglehold over the Indian shuttler. Tai had a psychological advantage going to Saturday’s semifinals as she won 13 matches to three over Sindhu.

Playing a near perfection game, Tai was the superior player. She never allowed Sindhu to play any smash shot and instead played low and wide of the Indian. As the game progressed, Sindhu ran out of ideas and her game collapsed.

Former National coach Bhaskar Babu said Tai’s quick movements and deceptive drop shots, net strokes and variation of attacking strokes troubled Sindhu. “As a result Sindhu could not execute the strokes properly and Taipei played stamped her class,’’ he said.

In the first game it looked like Sindhu had come with a game plan and went into an 11-8 lead.

But Tai came back strongly. She began to play early and foxed Sindhu with deceptive drop shots. From a four-point deficit, Tai widened the lead even though Sindhu was in the game till 18-all. But after that Tai pulled away and won three successive points to wrap up the first game.

The first game loss shattered the confidence of Sindhu. Tai was relentless and the second game was totally a lop-sided affair.

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