PV Sindhu has beaten world number three Akane Yamaguchi to enter the gold medal match of the women’s singles event at the 2018 Asian Games.
The final scoreline read 21-17, 15-21, 21-10 to the world number three, making her only the first-ever Indian to qualify for a badminton final in Asian Games history. India had previously won eight bronze medals in the continental event with Syed Modi being the only singles player to finish on the podium, at the 1982 edition.
Sindhu was sluggish at the start, making unforced errors but recovered quickly to be in control. She dominated the rallies and created a 11-8 lead at first break. She remained solid at the net, using a variety of strokes to force the Japanese world number 2 to make errors.
A long rally ensued at 20-17 but Yamaguchi sent a smash wide and Sindhu closed the opening game at 21-17.
The second set saw Yamaguchi stage a comeback. Even though the Indian world number two was leading at 10-6, unforced errors crept into her game and Yamaguchi capitalised by closing it at 21-15 with Sindhu hitting a forehand wide.
The two players had faced each other four times this year and Sindhu was leading the head-to-head 3-1 coming into the match.
As the third game started, it was an error-free Sindhu once again on court as she reeled off four points in a row to shoot to 7-3, before taking the break with a 11-7 lead. She also won a sensational 50-shot rally to pull away 16-8 and there really was no stopping her from there as she closed out the win in 65 minutes.
Sindhu will now face world number one Tai Tzu Ying in the final on Tuesday at 10:30 AM after the world number one beat Saina Nehwal in straight games in the other semi-final of the day.
