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Ace Indian shuttler P V Sindhu scored an upset victory over top seed Ji Hyun Sung in a hard-fought three setter to storm into the women's singles final of the $120,000 Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in Penang on Saturday.
Sindhu, the double World Championship bronze medallist, beat the world number eight Korean 21-19, 12-21, 21-10 in the semi-final that lasted an hour and nine minutes.
The World No 12 Indian thus put herself on course for a fifth Grand Prix Gold event.
The Hyderabadi had won the same tournament in 2013 before bagging three more Grand Prix Gold tournament titles at the Macau Open (2013, 2014 and 2015).
The two rivals had a 2-2 head-to-head record before Saturday’s meeting, and they opened the first set neck-and-neck till they tied at 11-all.
From there, Sindhu nosed ahead by winning seven straight points. The Korean fought back but Sindhu did not let the advantage slip by as she took the first set 21-19.
The Indian, however, could not continue carry the momentum into the second set. She fell back early in the 2nd set and was forced to play catch-up against Sung. The Indian narrowed down the gap in the score to just one point at 10-11 but from there she lost concentration and allowed the Korean to win seven straight points and lost the second tamely (12-21).
Sindhu saved the best for the last as she played brilliant badminton in the deciding set.
She led all through in the decider after 3-all. From there on, Sindhu won seven straight points to leave Sung lagging and maintained the lead to win the decider 21-10 and wrap up the match.