Japan Open: Leaner, meaner, fitter Sindhu smashed it!

India’s PV Sindhu celebrates a point against Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi in Tokyo on Sunday. Pics/AFP

India has its first-ever Japan Open badminton singles champion, and Pusarla Venkata Sindhu has her first major since the 2019 World Championship crown in Basel.

Sindhu's 21-17, 21-17 triumph in 50 minutes over her diminutive arch-rival and three-time world champion (2021, 2022 and 2025), Akane Yamaguchi of the host nation, came at the end of a stirring campaign in which her satchel of scalps included Malaysia's Wong Ling Ching, China's Han Yue, Japan's two-time former world champion Nozomi Okuhara and China's 2024 Olympic champion, Chen Yu Fei.

Clearly, an impressive line-up, but a closer look at the results shows that the 21-16, 21-14 second-round triumph over World No. 5, Han Yue, was the most noteworthy of the five wins over a top-five player by the Indian World No. 12.

Akane Yamaguchi

In the quarter-final, PV Sindhu got a walkover against an injured Okuhara. The Indian was well in control of her semi-final against Chen Yufei though, snatching the first game 21-19, and leading 11-10 in the second, when the reigning Olympic champion suffered a hamstring strain that saw her hobbling through the next four points, and conceding the match, trailing 10-15.

Ahead of the final win over World No. 3, Yamaguchi, the head-to-head record showed Sindhu holding a wafer-thin 15-14 lead over the pocket-sized Japanese in a rivalry that had spanned 29 meetings. In addition, Yamaguchi had notched up five wins over the lanky Indian in their last six encounters, including the Australian Open and the Thailand Open this season, while Sindhu wrested back a point through Yamaguchi's retirement at the Malaysia Open.

But Sindhu looked leaner, meaner, fitter and quicker on her feet throughout the final which was a drab affair as both players played good badminton only in dribs and drabs. Yamaguchi appeared at her worst, probably feeling the after-effects of her 9-21, 21-16, 21-14 tussle against Indonesia's Putri Kusuma Wardhani the previous day. Sindhu was far more aggressive and positive than she has been in recent times, employing her height and reach to rain down smashes on her rival, at 29, two years her junior.

The Indian was prodigal to a fault, grabbing sizeable leads in both games before frittering them away with a string of negative points and hits into the net. Her supporters would've had their hearts in their mouths as Sindhu allowed the never-say-die Yamaguchi to narrow a five-point gap to a solitary point at 17-18, before steadying herself to get across the finish line.

Sindhu is on her way back to a very high level of play, which is heartening given the World Championships in New Delhi next month.

2019
The year in which PV Sindhu won her previous BWF major - a World Championships gold medal