Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and debutant Lakshya Sen stayed on course for maiden gold medals at the Commonwealth Games on Sunday.
Sindhu, who has a silver and a bronze from the 2018 and 2014 editions, rode on her technical superiority to outwit Singapore's Yeo Jia Min 21-19, 21-17 in a 49-minute contest to reach her second successive final. The Indian had also beaten Min in the team event.
In the following match, World No 10 Sen, making his CWG debut, seemed to have lost his way after a dominating start against Jia but recovered in time to complete a 21-10, 18-21, 21-16 win in the men's singles semi-finals.
Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty ensured a third gold medal match for India on Monday when they downed Malaysia's Chen Peng Soon and Tian Kian Men 21-6, 21-15 to reach the men's doubles final.
The world number 7 pair, who had claimed a silver at Gold Coast, was too good for the Malaysians.
In the first men's singles semi-final, Sen was stretched by his Singaporean opponent. He relied on relentless attack to put his Singaporean opponent on the backfoot and he was able to do that in the first game. A couple of forehand smashes on the Singaporean's right helped him take a 1-0 lead in the match.
The momentum shifted towards Jia in the second game as he slowed the pace of the game. A drop shot followed by a backhand winner made it 8-8 before Jia went into the interval with a 9-11 advantage.
A slew of unforced errors from Sen saw Jia take the next five points to make it 9-16. Sen tried to hang in the game, but after the Singaporean took a shoe change break at 15-18, he was able to level the match when Sen hit a forehand long.
Sen built an 11-7 lead in the decider though Jia made the Indian work hard for every point. The Singaporean was also given a last warning for delay in between points.
Sen got four points and converted the first one with a deft drop shot that set up a backhand winner.
"I didn't get in the rhythm in the second, but I managed to pull it off in the end. The crowd support also helped a lot in the first game," said Sen.
"It was a tough game today. I have played him before, so I was expecting a good, fast-paced match. I wanted to control the net much better, but overall and from the back, the defence was very good. That was a really good match before the final," said Sen.
Sen will face World No 42 Tze Yong Ng of Malaysia in the summit clash on Monday.
Earlier, former world champion Sindhu was clearly the better player on display as she kept a firm grip on the match, despite being a bit restricted in her movement with the achilles of her left leg strapped.
Trailing 4-8, Sindhu managed to enter the break with a two-point lead after producing a straight drop. The Indian produced the right shots at the right time to surge ahead even as Yeo was too erratic to put any pressure on the Indian.
It was a weak forehand return going to the net that gave Sindhu three game points, and she converted it on the third attempt to lead 1-0.
It turned into a seesaw battle in the second game with the two playing some intense rallies, but Sindhu ensured she had her nose ahead at the interval and maintained her strangehold to grab five match points.
She squandered two match points before unleashing a pitch-perfect body smash to secure her place in the final.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)