Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu enjoyed one of her finest hours of the season as she entered the finals of the Indonesia Open BWF Tour Super 1000 tournament with a straight-game win over All England Champion Chen Yufei of China here Saturday.
It was Chen who took the initiative in the first game, with Sindhu required to launch comebacks twice. Sindhu took the lead for the first time at 19-18, after a string of five consecutive points went in her favour. She finally took the first game 21-19.
Sindhu got off to a bad start in the second game as well, as Chen raced to a 4-0 lead. Sindhu fought back again to lead 10-8 at the interval. After the final interval, Chen could not find her way back into the match, as Sindhu took seven consecutive points to race to a 17-8 lead. She finally took the second game 21-10.
Chen, who won at Australia, Swiss and All England this year, has been the most prolific player this season and looked good in the first game but a fighting Sindhu held her own in the opening game and then completely dominated the second to seal the final spot.
Earlier, Sindhu had stormed into the semifinals by beating Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in straight games on Friday.
Sindhu hasn’t won a singles title this year and will be hoping she can break the drought in the final on Sunday. She has a 10-4 head-to-head record against Yamaguchi and so holds the edge in the final.
