Nanjing: Sunday’s Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Championships women’s singles final will be a rematch of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics final, in which PV Sindhu of India will take on Carolina Marin of Spain.
PV Sindhu who lost to Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in a pulsating 2017 World Championships women’s singles final that lasted an hour and 50 minutes, made her second consecutive trip to the World’s final after notching up a superb 21-16, 24-22 win over world number two Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in a 54-minute hard-fought match on Saturday.
Ahead of the match, Sindhu had a 6-4 head-to-head record against Yamaguchi, who had defeated the Indian in big-ticket events such as All England Championship this year and the Dubai Superseries Final last year. The duo had faced off twice this year with each registering a win.
Meanwhile, Carolina Marin who has had an underperformed year so far, seemingly found her mojo at the World Championships in Nanjing, beating No. 6 seed He Bingjiao of China 13-21, 21-16, 21-13 through her relentless attacks. The left hander will post a big threat for Sindhu to win her maiden World Championships on Sunday.
“We know each other’s game very well. The last time we played in a final, Marin walked away with the victory, but I hope I could get a gold this time,” said Sindhu.
In women’s doubles, Wakana Nagahara and Mayu Matsumoto of Japan beat Indonesia’s Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu 21-12, 23-21 to set up an all-Japanese women’s doubles final against last year’s runners-up, Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota.
“I always get stiff when I play a Japanese pair,” Matsumoto said. “But I just want to us to play like we always do without focusing on the fact that our opponents are Japanese.”
Fukushima and Hirota, the second seeds, beat compatriots Koharu Yonemoto and Shiho Tanaka 21-19, 21-15 in Saturday’s other semifinal.
