Rio de Janeiro: PV Sindhu brightened up India's Rio campaign on Thursday when she made it to the women's singles final at the Badminton Centre in Rio Centro here.
She became the first Indian to enter the badminton final in Olympics, improving on what Saina Nehwal did at the London Games in 2012. The former world No. 1 had made it to the penultimate round before settling for the bronze medal.
Even if she loses to Carolina Marin of Spain in the final on Friday, Sindhu is assured of a silver. That makes her only the fourth Indian to win an individual silver medal in Olympics. Trap shooter Rajyavardhan Rathore won the first silver for India in 2004 and in 2012 Sushil Kumar (wrestling) and Vijay Kumar (shooting, men's 25 rapid fire pistol) got two more. Abhinav Bindra remains the only Indian to win a gold in an individual event.
The 21-year-old Hyderabad girl would no longer have to live in Saina's shadow. While Saina was considered the queen of Indian badminton for the past few years. Sindhu had always been touted as the No. 2, despite her regular successes at the international level.
But then, if Sindhu manages to maintain her stunning form, then sky would be the limit for her. The final against Marin could be anybody's game. Sindhu has so far registered a series of wins over higher-ranked shuttlers and may topple the world champion.
She had earlier beaten Tai Tzu Yung of Taiwan and Yihan Wang of China, both placed higher than her in world rankings. There will also be no Chinese player in the women's final, a rarity in major badminton tournaments across the world.
"From the start of my campaign, I did not play to reach the Olympic final," said Sindhu after defeating world No. 6 Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 21-19, 21-10 in the semi-final in 51 minutes.
"I chose to take it match by match. I knew I will go to the next round if I manage to win a match. I have made the final by following this theory," she added.
On Wednesday, woman wrestler Sakshi Malik made a spectacular comeback at the last moment to clinch the bronze in the 58kg category. But Sindhu's approach was totally different - she established herself as a runaway winner from the start of the contest against the Japanese star.
In three previous meetings, Okuhara had got the better of the Indian, but on Thursday, it was a different ball game altogether. Playing with a bandaged right thigh, the Japanese player was clueless against Sindhu.
She did put up a fight in the first game, but in the second there was no doubt about Sindhu's superiority.
There was a large number of Indian fans present at the Badminton Centre to cheer Sindhu. They, too, were stunned to watch her in such dominating form.
Ranked 10th in the world currently, Sindhu took 12 points in a row in the second game to register a thumping win. The face of the Japanese girl turned pale as the match progressed - she had not expected such a ferocious onslaught from Sindhu.
Attack was the best policy for Pullela Gopichand's ward. From the very start, she was in an aggressive mood, smashing her way to win a series of points. Over-enthusiasm did cost her a few points however, but she never allowed herself to get into the defensive mode. It was perhaps one of the finest performances by an Indian athlete in the ongoing Olympics.
Sindhu had the advantage of height. She is much taller than Okuhara, who found it difficult to reach for the shuttle as Sindhu frequently smashed the ball past her rival.
