Top seed PV Sindhu added one more feather to her cap when she annexed the Asia Youth U-19 badminton title defeating second seed Okhuhara Nozomi of Japan 18-21, 21-17, 22-20 in 59 minutes in the girls singles final at Gimcheon, Korea, on Saturday.
For the lanky 17-year-old Sindhu, who is being coached at the Pullela Gopichand Academy, it was one of her career-best performance after her gold winning effort at Swiss International Challenge and Tata Indian International Challenge. She was also runner-up in the Dutch Open GP tournament. In the recent Indonesian Super Series Premier tournament, she lost in the pre-quarterfinals. She was also the semifinalist in the Malaysian Open Super Series tournament.
In the final, it was an intense battle in the first game before the Japanese girl romped home. However, Sindhu, ranked 27th the in world, came back strongly to take the next two games. In the decider, which went close, Sindhu held her nerve to bag the title. She thus became the first Indian to win the Asian junior girls title.