Basel: World Champion PV Sindhu finished a distant second best in the Swiss Open final after being completely routed by Olympic gold medallist Carolina Marin of Spain in a lop-sided women’s singles title clash here Sunday. This was the 14th clash between the two arch rivals who are very good friends off court. Marin now leads 9-5 in the head-to-head clash.
The 25-year-old Indian, who had won the coveted World Championship gold medal here in 2019, couldn’t match the speed and accuracy of Marin during her 12-21, 5-21 defeat in the final that lasted only 35 minutes.
It was Sindhu’s third successive loss to Marin. The latter had won both the Super 1000 events in Thailand in January before finishing runner-up at the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals.
Playing her first final in 18 months, Sindhu, ranked seventh in the world, entered the match having lost her last two matches against the former World No 1. However, Sindhu failed to summon her ‘A’ game under pressure as Marin came up trumps to claim her third title of the year. Incidentally Sindhu last played in a final in August 2019 when she won the World Championships.
Sindhu committed too many unforced errors as Marin made her run from one side of the court to the other constantly. In her haste to finish off points quickly, Sindhu also hit the shuttle long on a number of occasions. Overall it was a match which Sindhu would like to forget as quickly as possible.
Marin, the current World No. 3, had also defeated Sindhu in the final of the Rio Olympics in 2016.
Sindhu will next compete at the USD 850,000 All England Championships, a Super 1000 event to be held from March 17 to 21.
Carolina Marin bt PV Sindhu 21-12, 21-5