Sindhu rallies, Marin succumbs

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Sindhu rallies, Marin succumbs
Sun Yu in action against Carolina Marin.

dubai - Indian rallies to quell Japan's Yamaguchi; Sun Yu edges past Olympic champion in Dubai World Superseries

By James Jose

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Published: Thu 15 Dec 2016, 9:34 PM

It was quite the story of contrasts for two Olympians. Having contested a thrilling final in Rio and one ending up with the gold and the other settling for the silver, Spaniard Carolina Marin and India's PV Sindhu, both had targets on their back, coming into Dubai.
And while Sindhu, who just about made the grade for the Dubai BWF World Superseries Finals, came away unscathed from a three-game thriller, Marin was not lucky at the Hamdan Sports Complex on Wednesday.
The 21-year-old Sindhu rallied brilliantly from a game down to quell Japanese prodigy Akane Yamaguchi 12-21, 21-8, 21-15 in a little over an hour, while Marin succumbed to China's Sun Yu 21-18, 24-22 in a slightly ill-tempered match, in their opening Group  B fixtures.
Sindhu, who is making her Dubai debut, was put on the backfoot in the opening game before she went for broke in the remaining two games. And Yamaguchi had no answer to that and the Japanese wilted under the onslaught.
Sindhu's win improved her head-to-head meetings with Yamaguchi to 3-1. The Hyderabad girl had defeated Yamaguchi 21-11, 21-18 in their most recent meeting in the Thomas & Uber Cup Finals this year.
Prior to that, Sindhu had beaten Yamaguchi 21-8, 15-21, 21-16 in the Macau Open last year. Their first meeting in 2013 though had ended in Yamaguchi's favour with the Japanese beating Sindhu 21-6, 21-17 in the Yonex Japan Open.
Meanwhile, Sun Yu's win over Marin edged her past the Spaniard to 3-2 in head-to-head encounters. Yu had won their first two meetings in 2012 and 2014 after which Marin went on to take the spoils in last year as well as this year.


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