Denmark Open 2023: PV Sindhu finishes it off in style for a brilliant win against world No 7 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung | Badminton News
From 10-13 down in the deciding game, PV Sindhu went on a stunning run of 11 straight points to win the round of 16 tie against World No 7 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung on Thursday in Odense at the Denmark Open. The Indian finished the match off in style to come back from a game down and win 18-21, 21-15, 21-13 in a 71-minute contest.
In a match that swung like a pendulum, both players had streaks of points across the three games. Game 1 saw Tunjung go into the lead and Sindhu kept fighting back, but eventually couldn’t overhaul the Indonesian. Game 2 saw Sindhu open up a massive lead at 13-4 but the former junior world champion levelled it up at 14-14 before the Indian put together a good run. And then in Game 3, Tunjung opened up an early lead but Sindhu had two good runs, the second one that saw her win 11 unanswered points after the change of ends.
Sindhu came into the match with a 8-2 head-to-head lead in the previous 10 meetings. But Tunjung, after losing their first six matches, had won two in a row earlier this year. Sindhu had won their last meeting at the Indonesia Open and now extends her advantage against Tunjung to 9-2.
In the opening game, both players engaged in good rallies early on, with a 32-shot exchange setting the tempo for what was to follow. Sindhu was expectedly tested at the net the crafty Indonesian, as she had done earlier this year. Her deception in the drops and half slices made it hard for Sindhu on defence, but the Indian was up for it on Thursday. However, Sindhu made far too many errors as Tunjung took the lead.
The second game saw Sindhu start in dominant fashion, yelling out her ‘come on!’ often to get herself going. Tunjung’s errors helped too, as the 2019 world champion opened up a massive lead. But Tunjung went from 6-14 to level the game. Sindhu desperately needed a turnaround and it came from the unlikeliest of sources as she got a review right, not a common sight. It gave her the break she needed as she took the match into the decider.Most Read
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The potential turning point of the match came when Sindhu went down 5-9 in Game 3. From a similar position, she conceded a big lead to Wang Zhi Yi last week at the Arctic Open semifinal but here, she put together a superb run of five straight points. A disguised forehand crosscourt to go 10-9 up was one of the highlights of the day. That gave her the foothold to impose herself from the far side after the change of ends, where she dominated from 10-13 down. The decibel level of her roars kept increasing and she won the match with a dive to her left for a backhand block.
It would go down as one of Sindhu’s better wins of 2023, as she continues to show signs of returning to her best after brief glimpses in Hangzhou and Finland.
Sindhu will face Thailand’s Supanida Katethong in the quarterfinal, who defeated India’s Aakarshi Kashyap in straight games 21-18, 21-8. Sindhu has a 3-2 Head-to-Head record against the left-hander from Thailand, but does have a tendency to struggle against the aggressive style. Katethong has defeated Sindhu twice in the last two editions of the India Open.
