The winds of change have truly hit the Indian camp in Rio!
After Sakshi Malik’s historic bronze on Wednesday night, PV Sindhu has now marched into the gold medal match of the women’s singles event.
The Indian ace once again took on a higher ranked opponent, Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara is placed 6th in the world, but showing no signs of the billing - Sindhu cruised through the match with a 21-19, 21-10 scoreline.
The 21-year-old is now the first-ever Indian to reach the finals of a badminton event at the Olympics. The only other medalist from India in the sport was Saina Nehwal who won the Bronze at London 2012.
Sindhu next faces World Number 1 Carolina Marin in the finals on Friday night.
Coming into the match, Sindhu had a 1-3 head-to-head record against Okuhara but all that went for a toss as the Indian came out with a well-thought strategy, engaging the Japanese in long-rallies with her angled returns and deft drops.
Opening Set
In the opening game which lasted 29 minutes, Sindhu opened up a 4-1 lead early on and rode on Okuhara’s unforced errors to extend the advantage to 8-4. The Indian engaged her rival in long rallies and tried to vary the pace and finish them with well-executed drops.
A cross court forehand return after a long rally which consisted of 32 strokes helped Sindhu reach 9-6 before the Indian reached the interval with a 11-6 advantage after Okuhara hit long.
The Hyderabadi pushed the Japanese to the corners by playing half smashes and drops, while Okuhara continued to find the net while trying to play the cross court drops from the baseline.
Leading 14-10, Sindhu hit wide and long before coming up with a superb drop even as Okuhara forehand returns. At 16-18, Sindhu failed to negotiate a body return but she again caught hold of the shuttle early using her height and sent it sailing out of the Japanese reach. A missed net shot by Okuhara saw Sindhu reach the game point.
What ensued next was a long rally with Okuhara hitting across as the Indian grabbed the opening game after the Japanese found the net.
21-19 to the Indian.
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Second Set
Sindhu once again opened up a 3-0 lead but the Japanese soon clawed back and grabbed a slender 5-3 lead with the Indian finding it difficult to keep the shuttle inside the court.
The duo moved neck-and-neck from 5-5 to 8-8. A forecourt deception gave a point to Sindhu but she hit wide again. Sindhu retrieved everything that was thrown at her but she rushed on to a stroke to hit the net. At the interval, Sindhu managed a slender 11-10 lead after her return landed at the corner of the court.
Sindhu came out all cylinders blazing after the change of sides and reeled off 11 straight points with the help of her array of strokes, which included some brilliant backhand flick and drops, to completely demolish the third seeded Japanese.
It was a deceptive return which helped Sindhu reach a massive 10-point match point and then eked her name into the history books with a smash that caught Okuhara at the forecourt.
For the record, Marin also entered her maiden Olympic final beating London Olympic champion Li Xuerui 21-14 21-16.
(With inputs from PTI)
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