PV Sindhu defeated Japan's Nozomi Okuhara 21-19 21-10 in the semi-finals of the women's singles competition to become the first Indian badminton player to enter an Olympic final.
Sindhu will face world No. 1 Carolina Marin in the final on Friday for a gold medal.
The 21-year-old from Hyderabad started brightly against Okuhara who had a distinct disadvantage comparatively as Sindhu had a greater reach and kept retrieving and returning each shot.
A couple of poor shots from the world No. 6 Okuhara saw Sindhu open up a 11-6 lead in the first game but her Japanese opponent started clawing her way back into the game.
Okuhara had the right idea to counter Sindhu's reach as she upped the tempo and prolonged the rallies in order to try and lull her opponent into a false or a tired shot. She closed in on Sindhu to almost tie the game at 18-17 but the Indian kept calm and finished off the first game 21-19.
The second set started at a ferocious pace as Okuhara kept attacking Sindhu and forced her into a few uncharacteristic errors as Okuhara opened up a 7-5 lead, but Sindhu levelled things at 10-10.
Sindhu then stepped up the ante and won eleven points on the trot to win the last game 21-10 and create history.