PV Sindhu entered the India Open final with a commanding 21-18, 14-21, 21-14 win against South Korea’s Ji-Hyun Sung in New Delhi on Saturday in a match that lasted for an hour and 16 minutes. The Olympic silver medallist will play top seed Carolina Marin in Sunday’s final in a rematch of the Rio final.

While the first game was a close encounter, it was the the second-seeded Sung, who looked better poised going into the decider. The third seeded was resilient in the final game and closed down the game and the match with relative ease.

In the first game, the manner in which Sindhu approached her play at the net was a feature that stood out. One of Sindhu’s key weapons, the jump-smash was unleashed at regular intervals.

Once Sindhu surged into the lead, she hardly slipped up and went on to clinch the game, 20-18, holding off a late surge from the Korean.

It was Sindhu who had the momentum in the second game too, racing to a 5-3 lead. Sung staged a magnificent comeback from there, reeling off six straight points to storm into the lead. Sung exploited Sindhu’s relative weakness at the net, and took a large percentage of her points with a series of drop shots which were out of her opponent’s reach.

Despite battling hard, Sindhu couldn’t mount a comeback and Sung raced away to a 21-14 win in the second game. Sindhu shook off a poor second game quickly and raced into the lead in the third. From being completely outplayed and trailing 4-11 in the game, Sung stormed back in the contest, and trimmed Sindhu’s lead by just two points at 10-12.

It was her net-play that helped Sindhu regain her dominance in the contest. There was no comeback from Sung this time, and the Olympic silver-medallist sealed the contest with little fuss.