Indonesia Open 2025: PV Sindhu celebrates her R32 win over Nozomi Okuhara. (Badminton Photo/BWF)After taking a closely-fought opening game 22-20, PV Sindhu had three match point opportunities to close it out in straight games against her friend and long-time rival Nozomi Okuhara at the Indonesia Open Super 1000 on Tuesday. At 20-18, Sindhu missed a round-the-head crosscourt that, at her best, is a bread-and-butter closing shot. At 20-19, she missed another overhead slice down the line. At 21-20, she engaged in a good rally, moving Okuhara around the court but snatched at a kill shot with the Japanese well off position on court and open spaces gaping in front of her. Sindhu threw her head back in frustration… that was the worst miss of all. And Okuhara, somehow, took the match to a deciding third game.In those moments, Sindhu was a personification of the troubles that have come to haunt her in recent months. Finishing off a game or a match from good positions has been a concern but the Indian star steadied herself enough in the third game to prevail 22-20, 21-23, 21-15 in the 20th meeting between these two former world champions from the golden era of women’s singles. It wasn’t a classic that will go down in history as some of their other matches, but it was 79 minutes of two ageing shuttlers putting mind over matter, trying to grind out winners, with a sprinkling of vintage brilliance thrown in every now and then.In the end, the two shared a long embrace at the net. Both had wide smiles. They were meeting for the first time since October 2023. They don’t travel to the deep-end of tournaments regularly, as they did twice to play in two World Championships finals against each other; one an all-time epic in Glasgow that Okuhara prevailed and the other a blitz in Basel where Sindhu motored through for that elusive gold. They, perhaps, know that there might not be many more weekend meetings on court, at least not at a Super 1000 in an iconic venue like the Istora Senayan. And so they took their time to greet each other as they walked off the court.14 years. 20 matches. From my longest to the shortest World Championship finals — always with her. We’ve shared wins, losses, and a rivalry only we understand ❤️😂 Keep fighting, Nozomi. The court’s never quite the same without you 💪❤️ pic.twitter.com/1Ql8ZA8JON— Pvsindhu (@Pvsindhu1) June 3, 2025The start of the match will not go down as part of any highlight reels, as both Sindhu and Okuhara kept trading errors. The rally at 10-10, however, was a throwback to their heydays and Sindhu edged it to take a slender lead into the interval. Generally, the Indian was the more aggressive player on court while Okuhara relied on her touches at the net. A body smash at 17-17, just after Okuhara had taken the lead, had some extra zing from Sindhu and the Japanese was taken aback at the pace it came at her.Extra points were needed to decide the opening game from 20-20. Sindhu then came up with a delightful sliced drop, a moment of deception at the end of a long rally to give the Indian her first game point. She brought out the fist-pump and the roar after a flat drive from midcourt drew the error from Okuhara, 22-20.Okuhara made a better start to the second game, the point for a 7-4 lead typical of the Japanese star, digging out a low drop with a great retrieval. Luck seemed to be on her side too as quite a few times the net cord came to Okuhara’s rescue and the frustration was starting to show for Sindhu. There was a superb rally for 14-15 by Sindhu, a slice of the Glasgow show. At 19-17, the shuttle was called in, but Okuhara reviewed successfully. It could have been match points for Sindhu there but the opportunities did eventually come, thrice, and Sindhu snatched.#IndonesiaOpenSuper1000 #IndonesiaOpen2025Oh no! Malvika Bansod, leading 21-16 16-15, slips & falls at the end of a rally, it looks like left knee buckled. She's in a lot of pain. Tries to continue after a while, but as she tries to jump, she is wincing. Retires hurt.🎥 BWF pic.twitter.com/bpZtPpR0X5— Vinayakk (@vinayakkm) June 3, 2025Sindhu, to her credit, didn’t let the end of Game 2 affect her too badly. She held a slender 11-9 lead at the final change of ends and despite Okuhara coming out of the interval with two of the best points she had played all match, Sindhu soon opened up a big lead. At 16-12, Sindhu played the best point of the match from her perspective, decisively changing the angles to move Okuhara from flank to flank before setting up a winner with a classy crosscourt at the net. The Indian was able to get over the line eventually off her 7th match point.For Sindhu, after coming close to pulling off a big win over Chen Yufei last week in Singapore, this ought to be a confidence booster. Okuhara is not the force she once was but to get one past the line in a pressure situation like this should help her going forward. She is in a nightmare quarter of the draw on paper playing Chocueong next, but every win at this level counts.Lakshya Sen showed glimpses of his A-Game against the soon-to-be dethroned world No 1 Shi Yu Qi, fighting back from a mid-match slump to drag the Chinese top seed to the distance. But he eventually bowed out 11-21, 22-20, 15-21. The Indian saw a phase where he lost 21 out of 25 points and looked to be heading for a straight-games defeat before turning things around in Game 2. Lakshya also had a 14-13 lead in the decider but Shi turned it on at the end.Story continues below this adThere was heartbreak for Malvika Bansod in one of the outer courts, as the India No 2 was leading 21-16, 16-15 against a local favourite Putri Kusuma Wardani, ranked No 13. But while attempting a forehand from the backcourt, her left knee buckled and she was left wincing in pain. After a few minutes, she tried to carry on but couldn’t go through her warm-up routine, so ended up retiring hurt.Vinayakk Mohanarangan is Senior Assistant Editor and is based in New Delhi. ... Read More© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:PV Sindhu