PV Sindhu scripts history, clinches maiden BWF Tour Finals title

Rio Olympic silver-medallist PV Sindhu scripted history on Sunday as she brushed aside Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in straight games to lift her maiden BWF World Tour Finals title in Guangzhou, China. 

The 23-year-old Indian continued her rich vein of form to register a 21-19, 21-17 win over Okuhara in a thrilling summit showdown of the women's singles event that lasted a little over an hour. 

Sindhu, who finished as runner-up in the last edition of the tournament, got off to a positive start as she took an early 4-1 lead over her Japanese opponent. Subsequently, Okuhara rebounded strongly to take back-to-back points and close the gap a little to 5-7 against Sindhu. 

The Indian shuttler won the match's first long rally to take the lead of 10-5 before Okuhara made a brilliant comeback to draw level at 16-16 against Sindhu. However, Sindhu then broke Okuhara's run of consecutive points before eventually clinching the opening game.

In the second game, the Hyderabadi shuttler once again made a strong start to take a 3-0 lead, but she subsequently made an error to allow Okuhara to draw level at 7-7. At one point, the Japanese player won an exceptional rally to trail Sindhu by just two points, but she then made back-to-back unforced errors to eventually allow the Indian to take the trophy home. 

Earlier, Sindhu stormed into the finals of the tournament for the second consecutive time by beating 2013 world champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand 21-16, 25-23 in a 54-minute semi-final clash. 

With the win, Sindhu also claimed her first title of the year.