Carolina Marin avenged her loss in the India Open final with a crushing 21-11, 21-15 win over PV Sindhu in the Singapore Open on Friday, thus taking her into the semi-finals.
Sindhu was barely allowed to settle in the contest. Marin set up her points superbly, routinely targeting the flanks with drops, which the Indian struggled to cope with. It also gave little opportunity for Sindhu to play her trademark jump smashes or seize the initiative with her line play.
Marin raced to a significant 11-4 lead, reeling off points with ease. Some unforced errors late in the game allowed the Olympic silver medallist to pick up three successive points from 8-18. But, the damage was already done and Marin pocked the game with an exquisite body-smash in just 14 minutes.
Sindhu’s struggles continued in the second game too as the Spaniard continued to dictate terms in the contest, be it winning points at the net, or placing it low beyond the former’s reach.
Marin took a 3-0 lead and never looked back, rushing Sindhu to play use her backhand, which only made her lose further ground with her shots lacking control on this occasion.
The 22-year-old, in a last-ditch attempt, decided to go long in the final leg of the second game, a strategy that briefly worked as the Olympic champion made a couple of unforced errors.
Against an opponent so motivated and at her top of her game in all aspects, there was little that Sindhu could do. With the win, Marin stretched her winning record against Sindhu to 6-4.