PV Sindhu to face world champion Nozomi Okuhara in Thailand Open badminton final

PV Sindhu earned a hard fought win against Indonesian Gregoria Mariska Tunjung to enter the women’s singles final of Thailand Open badminton.

Indian badminton star PV Sindhu entered the women’s singles final of the $350,000 Thailand Open with a thrilling win over Indonesian Gregoria Mariska Tunjung at the Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok on Saturday.

Indian badminton star PV Sindhu has entered the women’s singles final of the Thailand Open. (AFP)

The second seed took exactly an hour to beat the unseeded Indonesian 23-21, 16-21, 21-9 and extend her perfect head-to-head record to 3-0.

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World No.3 Sindhu will take on arch-rival and reigning world champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the summit clash of the BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament on Sunday.

The duo have a 5-5 record against each other but significantly Sindhu won their only meeting this year at the All England Open quarterfinals in March.

Sindhu is looking to become the fourth Indian to win the tournament after Saina Nehwal (2012), Kidambi Srikanth (2013) and B Sai Praneeth (2017).

After sharing the first two games, it all boiled down to the decider where it was neck-and-neck with Sindhu leading 8-7. However, the Hyderabadi found legs to notch the next 10 points and raced away to a 18-7 lead.

The Olympic silver medallist won three of the next five points played to take the victory and enter the summit clash.

Overall, out of the 111 points played, Sindhu won 60 while Gregoria clinched 51.