It took one hour and 50 minutes for a winner to emerge when Nozomi Okuhara defeated PV Sindhu in the final of the World Championships in 2017 but there was no such drama this time around as Sindhu notched a buoyant 21-7, 21-7 win against Okuhara in one of the most lopsided finals in Worlds history. With this win, Sindhu became the first Indian to win gold at the Worlds. This was her third final in three editions and she now has one gold, two silvers and two bronzes in her kitty from the Worlds alone.
Okuhara won the first point of the match on a Sindhu error at the net but it was Sindhu who dictated the flow of rallies at the start of the match, racing to a 8-1 lead as Okuhara struggled to deal with her power and steep smashes. Okuhara has a tendency to start matches slowly before slowly working her way into the contest like she did in the semifinal against Ratchanok Intanon. However, there was no letup in intensity from Sindhu, who led 11-2 at the changeover and then wrapped up the opening game in just 16 minutes with the score being identical to the first game in her semifinal against Chen Yufei.
Sindhu made full use of her 23 cm height advantage over Okuhara as she kept pushing the Japanese player deep and into the corners and the pressure began to tell on Okuhara as she made a lot of uncharacteristic unforced errors.
Renowned for her fighting spirit and mental reserves, Okuhara tried to desperately hang on in the match but it turned out to be futile as Sindhu led 11-4 at the changeover in the second game. Sindhu continued to motor to the finish without showing any nerves and eventually finished the match with a precise half smash.
Here's how it happened.
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