Rio Olympic silver-medallist PV Sindhu will look to clinch an elusive gold at the BWF World Championships when she squares off with Japanese star and world number three Nozomi Okuhara in the summit showdown of the women’s singles event of the prestigious tournament in Besel, Switzerland on Sunday.
On Saturday, the fifth-seed Indian continued her rich vein of form when she eased past fourth-seed Chen Yu Fei of China 21-7, 21-14 in the one-sided semi-final match of the tournament to book her place in the final.
With the win, Sindhu scripted history by making it to the final of BWF World Championships for the third consecutive time. It is to be noted that the 24-year-old clinched two back-to-back silver medals in the last two editions of the tournament.
Okuhara, on the other hand, rebounded strongly from the first game down to ultimately seal a 17-21, 21-18, 21-15 win over seventh-seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in another last-four match that lasted one hour and 23 minutes.
Heading into the summit showdown, the Indian shuttler will look to avenge her final defeat to Okuhara in the epic 2017 World Championships final which went on to become the longest women’s singles gold medal match in the history of the event. Sindhu slumped to defeat at the hands of Okuhara in three games of the match that lasted for 110-minute.
The duo has faced each other 15 times in their badminton career, with Sindhu leading the head-to-head series between them by 8-7.
Notably, Sindhu is currently the lone Indian survivor in the ongoing tournament after B. Sai Praneeth settled for a silver following a disappointing 13-21, 8-21 defeat at the hands of top-seed Kento Momota of Japan on Saturday.
Source: Zee News