Top seed Yamaguchi beats aggrieved Sindhu to reach final of Badminton Asia Championships
- Olympic silver medallist penalised for taking too long with her serve in semi-final in Manila
- Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi now favourite to retain her crown in final against China’s Wang Zhiyi
Top seed Akane Yamaguchi battled back to reach Sunday’s Badminton Asia Championships final with a controversial win over Indian rival P.V. Sindhu.
Japan’s Yamaguchi will be favourite to retain her women’s singles crown when she faces China’s unseeded Wang Zhiyi in the title-decider in Manila.
Fourth-seeded Sindhu claimed the first game of her semi-final on Saturday against the reigning world champion 21-13 and was leading 14-11 in the second when the umpire ruled that the Indian player was taking too long to serve.
A clearly unhappy Sindhu, an Olympic silver and bronze medallist, argued her case with the officials but to no avail and she conceded a point penalty to her opponent.
She appeared to lose her focus and rhythm after that, allowing Yamaguchi to come back to claim the second game 21-19 and the deciding third 21-16.