PV Sindhu booked a rematch against Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in the final of the Thailand Open, but not before the world No 3 was made to work by Indonesian teenager Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in the semi-finals on Saturday in Bangkok.
Sindhu needed three games, played over an hour, to get past the world junior champion, who brought her A-game to the match against the Olympic silver medallist.
Sindhu was a bit rusty to begin the match, as Tunjung dominated in the early exchanges, taking a 11-7 lead into the first interval. The Indonesian’s net play was brilliant, as she held on to her lead till 16-12. From here, Sindhu switched up a gear and won four points in a row to level the score.
As the first game neared its end, the two players were at each other’s necks. Tunjung even had a game point at 21-20, but Sindhu won the next two points to take the lead in the match.
Sindhu upped her aggression in the second game, unleashing few unplayable jump smashes to take a 9-7 lead before some unforced errors allowed Tunjung to recover and take a 11-9 lead into the interval.
Sindhu continued with her attacking play but the 18-year-old’s defence was really good in the second half of the game. Her lifts and drops were equally impressive as she eventually took the match into a decider, winning the second game 21-16.
In the third game, Sindhu profited from some early errors from Tunjung to take a 5-1 lead but then committed mistakes of her own to allow the Indonesian to close down the gap to 8-7. However, the teenager seemed to run out of steam after that as Sindhu won 10 points in a row to put the match out of her reach. The Indian closed out the third game 21-9 to seal her progress.
In the final on Sunday, Sindhu will reignite her rivalry with Okuhara, who had beaten her in a marathon world championship final last year. Since that match in August, Sindhu has beaten Okuhara two times, with the Japanese winning once in three meetings.