Gritty Sindhu goes down fighting in the final

Bengaluru, Augsut 26: India's P V Sindhu settled for silver after losing 19-21, 22-20, 20-22 to Japan's Nozomi Okuhara in a thrilling final of the World Badminton Championship at Glasgow today (August 27).

The 22-year-old had beaten Okuhara thrice times and and lost an equal number of times in the last six meetings.

However, the Japanese had the last laugh on Sunday in the longest match of the World Championships, which lasted 110 minutes.

This was the third medal for Sindhu in the World Championship. She had won bronze twice in the 2013 and 2014 editions.

With this, she also became the only second Indian to win a World Championship silver after Saina Nehwal achieved that feat in the last edition at Jakarta.

Incidentally, Nehwal had lost to Okuhara in the semifinal.

Coming into the final, Sindhu has been in rampaging form ever since the Rio Olympics. She clinched her maiden Super Series premier title at China Open last year before winning the India Super Series at New Delhi in April. She also won the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in January.

Meanwhile, Okuhara became the first player from Japan player to win a world singles title.

Sindhu puts up a brave fight

Their bodies were falling apart as the match progressed but both Sindhu and Okuhara used every ounce of energy left in them to make it an epic contest.

After closing the second game by winning an incredible 73-shot rally, Sindhu saved one championship point in the decider but it was the Rio Olympic bronze medallist who had the last laugh.

For India, it still is a historic edition since for the first time country's shuttler are returning with two medals after Nehwal won bronze following her losing in the semifinal.

India had one silver and four bronze in the World Championships before this edition. Prakash Padukone was the first Indian to win a medal when he took a bronze in the men's singles in 1983 before the women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa bagged another bronze in 2011.