Dubai World Superseries Finals 2017: PV Sindhu tops group, Srikanth Kidambi ends campaign winless

While PV Sindhu continued her winning streak at the World Superseries Finals 2017 in Dubai, Srikanth Kidambi could not bring any change to his fortunes and succumbed to a third straight loss on Friday. Sindhu was utterly dominant and ruthless in her 21-9, 21-13 upset win over the in-form World No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi that took just 36 minutes.

Both Sindhu and Yamaguchi had registered wins in their last two matches and had no pressure coming into this clash. Having confirmed their semi-final berths, all they were fighting for was a chance to top the group.

Sindhu stamped her authority right from the start and never relinquished control as the Japanese, who has been the most consistent player in the last few months, looked listless and unsure.

Yamaguchi got her first point at 0-5 but that could not do anything to derail the Indian, who raced ahead to 11-1 in an excellent start to the match. The China Open champion could only win six more points for the rest of the game.

Yamaguchi kept it more competitive in the second game but her errors simply did not help her cause. From 14-12, Sindhu added the next four points before closing out the match immediately afterwards.

This is the second consecutive year that the Pullela Gopichand protégé has made it to the semi-finals of the season finale. Last year, her challenge came to an end at the hands of the Korean star Sung Ji Hyun in the semi-finals.

With the kind of form she has shown this year, she will definitely hope to make it through to the final for the first time.

Srikanth wins his first game of the tournament

The World No. 4 Srikanth was hoping to end his campaign on a winning note, having had to taste defeat in his earlier two matches at Dubai. He had never lost to the eighth ranked Shi Yuqi in three meetings and there was surely hope that he might be able to secure the elusive win.

However, the Chinese held his nerves and exuded determination, even though the Indian made it very close. Srikanth showed his usual brilliance towards the end of the second game when he was two points away from defeat.

From 18-19 down, he grabbed the next three points through some fiery aggression to snatch the second game, 21-19. However, he could not do much to subdue the Chinese in the decider and slumped to a 17-21, 21-19, 14-21 loss in 1 hour 7 minutes.

This was the first time in this tournament that the India No. 1 managed to win a game. Srikanth thus ended his career-best season with four Superseries titles that took him to a career-high World No. 2 ranking.