Double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu on Saturday earned a shot at the USD 420,000 Malaysia Masters crown after entering the women’s singles finals with a come-from-behind win over Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan.
Fifth seed Sindhu, who has not won a title in two years, rallied to prevail 13-21 21-16 21-12 against world number 20 Busanan in a marathon semifinal that lasted 88 minutes to close in on the BWF World Tour Super 500 crown at the Axiata Arena.
Sindhu had won the 2022 Singapore Open and finished runner-up at Madrid Spain Masters last year.
It was her 18th win over Busanan, who has beaten the Indian only once in her career way back in 2019 Hong Kong Open.
World No. 15 Sindhu, who will be eyeing her third Olympic medal at the Paris Games in two months time, will face second seed and world no. 7 Wang Zhi Yi of China in the summit clash.
Sindhu had lost to Wang at the Arctic Open last year but has defeated the Chinese twice in three meetings.
A silver and bronze medallist in the last two editions of the Olympics, Sindhu seemed to have found her mojo back as she dished out some attacking badminton this week after looking out of sorts since making a comeback from a knee injury early this season.
It has been a while since Sindhu has defeated big guns such as Carolina Marin, Tai Tzu Ying, Chen Yu Fei and Akane Yamaguchi — whom she is expected to come across at the Paris Olympics. A title triumph here will provide her a major boost ahead of the Summer Games.
Despite her overwhelming record against Busanan, it turned out to be a tough fight for Sindhu as she had to do the catching-up job, with the Thai dominating the proceedings in the opening game.
Spectacular in the opening game, Busanan completely lost control in the decider as she was erratic and struggled with her court coverage while Sindhu looked aggressive.
The Indian grabbed eight match points with Busanan going to net again and when Busanan again went wide, Sindhu raised her arm to mark a subdued celebration.
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