Kolkata: PV Sindhu continued to make her country proud after she put up yet another dominating performance in the semi-final against Chen Yufei to proceed to the finals of the World Badminton Championships in Glasgow to be held on Sunday.
She defeated the Chinese world no.10 21-13, 21-10 in straight sets to set up a date with Japanese Nozomi Okuhara in the final. She also has become the first Indian badminton player to have reached the finals of the Olympics and the World Championships.
Playing her third semi-final in the World Championships, Sindhu proved to be more powerful than the young Chinese, defeating Chen quite comprehensively in a match that just lasted for 45 minutes.
Revenge was indeed sweet for Sindhu, after she had lost to Chen earlier this year at the Malaysia Open. The 22-year old from Hyderabad however, started the match nervously, shaky at times and conceded an unexpected lead of 6-4 to Chen, who dominated the proceedings early in the first set. But Sindhu bounced back in an emphatic fashion to lead the first set at 19-8 and eventually win it 21-13.
The second set however completely belonged to the Indian, as she took control the match right from the start, taking a 8-0 lead. The match was completely over for Chen Yufei and despite some late resurgence by the Chinese, it was not enough to stop the world no.4 from reaching the finals.
It was just a matter of 25 minutes before the second set ended with 21-10 on the scoresheet, much to the delight of the audience. Although the match saw so much rallies played between the players, it was the Hyderabadi shuttler who made it to the finals with some great patience and clever moves.
Sindhu next takes on Japanese Nozomi Okuhara, who had already defeated star shuttler and 2015 World Championship silver medalist Saina Nehwal earlier to progress to the final.
Many hearts were broken when Saina crashed out of the tournament after losing to Nozomi 21-12, 17-21 and 10-21 at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow. Nonetheless, the 27-year old Nehwal would take home a bronze medal despite putting up a brave fight.
With the silver medal assured, Sindhu will definitely look to clinch the elusive gold to have her name written in the history books. This dominating performance reminds us of the Rio Olympics in 2016, where she competed in a closely fought contest with Spanish ace shuttler Carolina Marin but finally had to settle for a silver.
The entire country had stood up and applauded the badminton star after her performance in Rio last year and on Sunday, she would like to clinch that gold medal to carve for herself an irreplaceable place in the hearts of not only Indians, but ardent lovers of the sport from all across the globe.
Edited by Souryaprokas Bhaduri