(S.Ravi Seshu)
Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu once again rose to the occasion at an appropriate time and reached semifinals of the BWF World Super Series Final in Dubai on Friday by outsmarting the top seed Carolina Marin in two straight sets.
In a must-win match, the Indian dominated the Spaniard from the word go and sent her packing 21-17, 21-13 while taking revenge for her Olympics final humiliation.
In fact, Sindhu carried pressure before the match with Olympics gold winner, Marin as she needed a win to remain in the fray. After clinching the opening game 21-17, Sindhu raised the bar of her game multi-fold and dominated the Spaniard in an unprecedented way. She capitalized on the opening lead and put back the burden on otherwise aggressive Marin. The Spaniard looked like coming back to the game by stepping up in the second half of the second game. Sindhu equally fought back and won the second game with less effort than the previous one.
In the toughest group-B, Sindhu made a good beginning in Dubai by beating World No-8 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan 12-21, 21-8, 21-15 but lost to China’s Sun Yu 15-21, 17-21 giving an impression that Indian’s campaign came to a near end. In the semis, Sindhu will lock horns with the Group-A topper, Ji Hyun Sung of South Korea, while former champion Tzu Ying Tai of Chinese Taipei takes on Group B topper Sun Yu in another semis.
