India’s lone hope at the ongoing China Open, in Fuzhou, PV Sindhu battled past Ji Hyun Sung in her semi-final to secure her place in the final against China’s Yu Sun. The seventh-seeded Indian won 11-21, 23-21, 21-19 in 84 minutes.
Going into the match, it was the Indian who had the edge over her opponent in their head-to-head record, 3-2. But the seventh ranked South Korean put Sindhu through her paces in the first game, preventing her from getting too comfortable on the court. Despite Sindhu’s efforts, she wasn’t convincingly able to catch up to the Korean’s pace and lost the opening game 11-21.
It was a different story in the second and third games. Sung found it hard to maintain her rhythm against the much-improved game of the Indian and though she led in the earlier stages of the game, including in the dying moments of the last game, Sindhu kept her cool and gained control of the match.
Sindhu’s opponent in the final, Yu Sun seeded eighth upset her fifth seeded opponent from Taiwan, Tzu Ying Tai in straight games. Sun won 21-8, 23-21 in 46 minutes. The Chinese player has a narrow lead over the Indian, leading 3-2 in their five previous meetings. But the two haven’t met in over two years, with their last meeting coming at the 2014 Swiss Open that Sindhu narrowly lost, 21-18, 12-21, 19-21.
