National champion P V Sindhu stayed on course to become the
first Indian shuttler to lift the Badminton Asia Youth U-19 championship title
when she defeated third seed Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand 21-19, 21-16 in
the semifinals in Gimcheon, Korea, on Friday.
The Gopichand Academy trainee hasn’t lost a game in this
tournament so far and in the final would face Japanese second seed Nozomi
Okuhara, who got the better of her compatriot Akane Yamaguchi 21-19, 21-9 in
the other semifinal.
This is the first time any Indian girl’s singles player has
managed to reached the summit clash of the Asian championship. Sindhu came
close to that feat last year but went down against Chinese Yu Sun at the last
four stage.
However, the top seed took a revenge of sorts over the
Chinese when she got the better of Sun in the quarterfinals here.
While Sindhu is chasing history, compatriot Sameer Verma would
not get a chance to improve on his runners up finish last year after he went
down 13-21, 21-18, 21-9 against third seed Kento Momota of Japan in the
semifinals.
The next Saina is on the way. India has started making a line up late & slow but sure. The Title u/19 championships of asia is definitely of a great achievement. Thanks Abhijeet for the information
ReplyDeleteUday Sane