Indian shuttler PV Sindhu won a silver medal at the Rio Olympics after losing the women's singles badminton final to world No. 1 Carolina Marin of Spain on Friday. The ninth-seeded Indian lost the match 21-19 12-21 15-21 against the European and world champion after an hour and 20 minutes. This was the fifth time in seven encounters that Marin had beaten Sindhu. However, the 21-year-old Sindhu is the first Indian woman to win an Olympic silver medal. Her achievement is even greater considering this was her debut Olympic campaign.

Marin began the first game as the more aggressive of the two and raced to a 11-6 lead. However, Sindhu fought back and closed the gap to trail 16-17, including an amazing rally in which the duo exchanged as many as 52 shots. Marin extended her lead again to make it 19-16, but Sindhu won five straight points to take the game 21-19.

Marin again raced to a handsome 11-2 lead in the first half of the second game to put the pressure back on Sindhu. The Indian stepped up a gear and reduced the gap, but could not prevent Marin from winning the game 21-12 and forcing a decider. The third game followed a similar script in the initial stages as Marin took a 6-1 lead, before Sindhu launched another fightback to make it 10-10. A tight second half to the game followed, before Marin clinched it 21-15 and, thereby, won the gold.