All England Open 2018: PV Sindhu works hard to enter the quarter-finals 

PV Sindhu defeated Thailand’s Nitchaon Jindapol in three gruelling games in a second round match at the prestigious All England Open 2018 played at the Arena Birmingham in England on Thursday.

The Rio Olympic silver medallist started the first game on an aggressive note and easily won it 21-13. The second game saw the reversal in which Jindapol dominated and won it 13-21. In the final game, it was neck-to-neck battle until 18-18, before Sindhu took three successive points to win the game and the match 21-18.

In the first game, PV Sindhu started on a positive note taking an early lead of 6-3 and continued to dominate, taking an 11-5 lead at the mid-game. After the interval, the Rio Olympic silver medallist played with lots of aggression and never allowed Jindapol to come into the game. Sindhu won the first game easily by a margin of 21-13.

The second game saw the reversal of the trend as Thailand’s Jindapol played with lots of aggression and made Sindhu commit lots of errors and prevented her to execute her plans. The Thai player took a commanding 11-3 at the mid-game.

After the interval, Sindhu did make an effort to come back into the match but Jindapol did not allow her to dominate and easily closed out the second game 21-13.

The third game saw both players fighting for each point. Sindhu started the game on a good note, taking a 3-0 lead and continued it to build a 6-3 lead.

Jindapol bounced back from 5-8 down, playing aggressive badminton and equalled the scores at 9-9. At the interval, Sindhu had a slender 11-9 lead.

After the interval, again the Thai player made a comeback and levelled the score at 11-11 and progressed to increase her lead to 16-12. Though disappointed, Sindhu showed great fighting spirit to equal at 18-18.

She held her nerves and took three successive points to win the decider 21-18 and with it, the match to progress into the quarter-finals of the All England Open 2018.