Sindhu has stayed on Gao's heels but still has not managed to close the gap. Sindhu now 6-10 Sindhu looking very tentative and unsure. Gao has gone up to 8-2 Sindhu finally gets one point back and trails 2-6 It's 2-1 to Gao. First point goes to Gao The players have finished warmup and the match is about to begin. Good morning and welcome to the Sportskeeda live coverage of the 2018 Japan Open second round. PV Sindhu is targeting a place in the quarter-finals today. She is the third seed and the favourite in this clash, by dint of ranking. While Sindhu is World No. 3, Fangjie is placed at 14th in the world rankings. However, Sindhu cannot afford to take her opponent lightly. In their only clash that took place at the China Open last year, it was Fangjie who won. The young Chinese has thus got a measure of Sindhu and knows how to play the Indian. Sindhu did not have a very confident-boosting outing in her first round match at the Japan Open on Tuesday. She trailed for most of the first game before making a comeback against Sayaka Takahashi. In the second game, she got completely outplayed. It was finally in the decider where Sindhu played like she is expected to do. It could have been an effect of fatigue building up after a hectic schedule that has seen her reach the finals at the World Championships and the Asian Games back-to-back. Sindhu needs to be careful not to have a slow start again as it would be detrimental for her against such a talented and fearless youngster.
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