Badminton Asia Championships 2018, Women's Singles, 1st Round: PV Sindhu vs Pai Yu-po, Live Match Updates

Sindhu def Pai 21-14, 21-19 to enter R2

Updated: 25 April 2018 15:32 IST - Published: 25 April 2018 12:59 IST

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Wow! That second game was absolutely roller-coaster. Credit to Pai for keeping up the fight till the end, but Sindhu just managed to raise her level towards the very end, just like how a World No. 3 player should!

AND SHE DOES INDEED TAKE IT!!!!!

SINDHU WINS 21-14, 21-19 IN 44 MINUTES!!!

SINDHU HAS A MATCH POINT NOW!!!!

20-19

CAN SHE TAKE IT?

IT'S 19-19

Pai went up to 19-17 but Sindhu gets a point here

Pai 19-18 now

Pai now ends Sindhu's run and gets a couple of points of her own!

She is up 18-17

Eighth point in a row for Sindhu!!!!

17-16

SINDHU IS BACK IN THIS!!!!!

16-16

And she now is behind by just one point!

15-16

Sindhu has come back to 14-16

It's 16-13 now

Sindhu is slowly chipping away at Pai's lead

It's a four-point difference between the two now!

Pai up 16-12

Sindhu finally snaps the six-point winning streak of Pai and trails 10-15

It's all Pai now!

She gets THREE MORE POINTS TO BUILD A BIG 15-9 LEAD!

Some courageous display from Pai under pressure!

12-9 she leads!

It's 11-9 to Pai going into the break.

Pai continues to make Sindhu work very, very hard!

Pai has a slender 10-9 lead now

The determined Pai once more doesn't let Sindhu build a big lead!

She storms back to 8-8

But Sindhu rebounds!

With three quick points, she inches ahead to 8-6

The game continues to be hard-fought and very tight.

Pai takes a tiny lead of one point at 6-5

And it is all even at 4-4

As expected, the Indian takes big strides and gets THREE POINTS ON THE TROT TO TAKE A 4-3 LEAD!!

Pai is dictating the terms in the early stages of Game 2.....now the question is how long will she be able to continue?

In the second game, Pai has opened up a 3-1 lead

And the Indian takes the first game 21-14

SEVEN GAME POINTS FOR THE INDIAN!!!!!

20-13

And 19-13

The Indian is all set to take the first game!

It's 18-13 to the India No. 1 now

But Sindhu stops it just in time!

Quickly adds two points and goes up to 17-12

And she gets yet another point!

Just three points separating the two now, with Sindhu leading 15-12

Pai again comes back to add two more points and trail 11-15

And she is being the aggressor here, as expected!

15-9 for Sindhu!

Sindhu stops her march and extends her lead to 14-9

Pai is CLOSING IN!

It's now a FOUR-POINT lead for Sindhu at 13-9

A long rally goes Pai's way and she now trails 8-13

Pai gets a point after the break but Sindhu is still comfortably placed at 12-7

Sindhu jumps ahead to 11-6 going into the mid-game interval.

Sindhu extends her lead over Pai to three points now!

9-6

Steadily, the Indian is imposing her attacking game!

It's 8-6 to the Indian!

Still not much to choose between the two

6-6

Sindhu moved ahead to 5-4 but Pai soon levelled matters at 5-5

And they continue to be tied

4-4

It is all even in the initial stages of the match

2-2

And we are off!

Hello and welcome to Sportskeeda's live coverage of the women's singles event of the Badminton Asia Championships! India's PV Sindhu will battle it out with Taiwan's Pai Yu-po.

PV Sindhu put up a good show in the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018. She won a Silver medal in the Women's Singles category and lost to fellow Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal in the final.

PV Sindhu will take on Pai Yu-po, the Taiwanese badminton player in the first round of the Badminton Asia Championships 2018. Saina Nehwal has already qualified to the Round of 16 after beating the Singaporean badminton player, Yeo Jia Min 21-12, 21-9 in the first round. PV Sindhu will be looking to join her in the Round of 16 as well by beating a much lower ranked Pai Yu-po should not be much of a problem for her. This will act as a warm up match for the third seed Sindhu and help her start off proceedings in the competition.

Meanwhile, in the Men's category there was a brief scare for Kidambi Srikanth as he lost the first game in his match against K Nishimoto of Japan with a scoreline 13-21. He put up a good fight to come back though, and won the next two games 21-16, 21-16 to secure his place in the Round of 16.

The competition at the Badminton Asia Championships 2018 will be extremely difficult, and with the Indian doubles players who played at the CWG being rested, it is up to the Singles players to win a few medals for the country.