Kidambi Srikanth left gallantly. Saina Nehwal hobbled off hurting. The doubles teams of Jwala Gutta & Ashwini Ponappa and Manu Attri & Sumeeth Reddy exited without creating as much as a ripple.Pusarla V Sindhu is the last among them standing. Seven badminton players arrived in Rio, Indias largest ever contingent and only one among them can now return with a medal. On Thursday, Sindhu fronts up against Japans Nozomi Okuhara for a place in the gold medal match in the womens singles. Okuhara sits four places above Sindhu in the world rankings at number six and will present a huge stumbling block to Sindhus aspirations of securing a medal.The Japanese player has been one of the standout performers on the circuit in recent months. She won the season ending World Super series finals in Dubai last December without losing a single game in five matches. This year she has a win-loss record of 21-8, also capturing the All-England open in March, one of the most prestigious tournaments on the circuit. Though she hasnt won a tournament since, at Rio, Okuhara has rediscovered her spark. She won her first three matches comfortably in straight games before being stretched to three by compatriot Yamaguchi Akane in the quarterfinals.Okuhara also holds a 3-1 edge over Sindhu in their head-to-head encounters, although interestingly each of their four matches have been three-game affairs. Sindhu won the first match in 2012 at the Badminton Youth Asia under-19 championships but Okuhara has clinched the last three, including one earlier this year in Sindhus hometown Hyderabad at the Badminton Asia Team championships.For Sindhus coach Pullela Gopichand though, those numbers will have little bearing on the outcome of this contest, with Sindhu playing some of the best badminton of her life over the past week.Sindhu needs to be aggressive and attacking, just the way she has been in the last two matches, says Gopichand. I dont think we need to go by past results, this is a new competition and she is in a positive frame of mind. The Japanese girl likes to engage in long rallies, so we will have to be prepared for that.One of the key factors in the match could be the significant difference in height between the players. Okuhara is a lot shorter at barely 51 whereas Sindhu, at 510 is among the tallest players on the circuit.In the course of this tournament, Sindhu has used her wingspan to great advantage, combining her assured movements with the ability to retrieve shuttles using her reach. However, Sindhu believes that while being taller than her opponents can be an advantage, it can also be an area where she can be targeted.Height is an advantage and a disadvantage, she told ESPN before leaving for the Olympics. It helps you catch up with the shuttle quicker. On the other hand, players have read my game so they dont give me much to attack, since my reach is very good. So they make me play more downward strokes.Over her short career, Sindhu has been dogged by inconsistency, evidenced by her failure to have won a single Super series title yet. However, she does appear to have a penchant for putting together strong runs at big tournaments.She won bronze medals at two consecutive World championships and remains the only Indian to have done so. After a patchy year on the circuit, she has produced a captivating run in Rio, with victories over two higher ranked players in world number two Wang Yihan of China and world number eight?Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan.She has performed well in big events, and shes performed well when shes had time to prepare well, explains Gopichand. She has been inconsistent a few times and squandered leads but I think thats a part of being so young. She has time and age on her side but she is a great fighter and has a great work ethic.Sindhu described the victory against Yihan as?one of the best moments?of her career adding that she hopes there are many more to come. 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Wholesale NHL Jerseys Authentic . -- Bobby Ryan helped the U. ANAHEIM, Calif. -- John Gibson bounced back from a most lousy performance by giving the Anaheim Ducks more than just a solid performance in net.He even helped generate some offense.Gibson made a season-high 33 saves, Cam Fowler and Ryan Kesler had goals and the Ducks gave the Edmonton Oilers their fourth straight loss, 4-1 on Tuesday night.Nick Ritchie and Antoine Vermette also scored for Anaheim, and Corey Perry had two assists to take the team lead with 15 points.Gibson earned his first assist of the season when he started the play that led to Fowlers 4-on-4 goal.A tie-up between Jordan Eberle and Josh Manson sent both off for two minutes 1:23 into the second period. Exactly 1 minute later, Gibson kicked a shot by Connor McDavid right to Fowler, who took it up the ice, dished it to Jakob Silfverberg, got it back and beat Talbot stick-side for a 2-0 lead.(Gibson) was awesome. He gave us a chance to win the game and kept us in it, Fowler said. The first 10 minutes of the second period were OK, but the last 10 minutes we spent the whole time in our own end. They had all the momentum. Without him, they probably get a couple more.Leon Draisaitl scored for Edmonton and Cam Talbot made 23 saves.Edmonton controlled play throughout much of the second period, outshooting Anaheim 18-9, but it was forced to climb out of a 3-0 hole after the Ducks capitalized on special teams chances to score twice in the second.Defensively, I didnt think we gave up much, but it was still four goals against, Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. I thouught we needed to get out of the second period down one, not two, and it would have made a difference.ddddddddddddShortly after Fowlers goal, Kesler ended Anaheims three-game power-play drought and put the Ducks up 3-0 at 7:51 of the second by catching a rebound in front of the crease and backhanding it around Talbots skate.With 1:46 left in the second period, Draisaitl put the Oilers on the board with an unassisted goal.Vermette scored at 9:00 in the third, pushing the game out of reach for the Oilers. Joseph Cramarossa led a 4-on-1 rush and found a trailing Vermette in the slot.I think we couldnt really establish a forecheck tonight, Draisaitl said. We couldnt really get that same momentum that we had in the second period with us. And its too bad, because I think we played a really solid game.Ritchie opened the scoring 7:13 in when he finished a beautiful backhand feed from Ryan Getzlaf with a top-shelf wrist shot over Talbot, the rookies fourth of the season.Game notes Ducks D Korbinian Holzer and RW Chris Wagner were both healthy scratches Tuesday. ... Oilers D Dillon Simpson and RW Jesse Puljujarvi were healthy scratches. ... Kesler has scored six goals in November and is one away from matching his career-best mark for the month, set in November of 2010 with Vancouver.UP NEXTOilers: Continue a three-game road trip in Los Angeles on Thursday night.Ducks: Host New Jersey on Thursday night. cheap falcons jerseys cheap ravens jerseys cheap bills jerseys cheap bears jerseys cheap bengals jerseys cheap cowboys jerseys cheap lions jerseys cheap texans jerseys cheap colts jerseys cheap jaguars jerseys cheap chiefs jerseys cheap rams jerseys cheap dolphins jerseys cheap vikings jerseys cheap saints jerseys cheap giants jerseys cheap jets jerseys cheap eagles jerseys cheap steelers jerseys cheap 49ers jerseys ' ' '