PV Sindhu defeated Japan's Nozomi Okuhara 21-19 21-10 in the semi-finals of the women's singles competition to become the first Indian badminton player to enter an Olympic final.

Sindhu will face world No. 1 Carolina Marin in the final on Friday for a gold medal.

The 21-year-old from Hyderabad started brightly against Okuhara who had a distinct disadvantage comparatively as Sindhu had a greater reach and kept retrieving and returning each shot.

A couple of poor shots from the world No. 6 Okuhara saw Sindhu open up a 11-6 lead in the first game but her Japanese opponent started clawing her way back into the game.

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Okuhara had the right idea to counter Sindhu's reach as she upped the tempo and prolonged the rallies in order to try and lull her opponent into a false or a tired shot. She closed in on Sindhu to almost tie the game at 18-17 but the Indian kept calm and finished off the first game 21-19.

The second set started at a ferocious pace as Okuhara kept attacking Sindhu and forced her into a few uncharacteristic errors as Okuhara opened up a 7-5 lead, but Sindhu levelled things at 10-10.

Sindhu then stepped up the ante and won eleven points on the trot to win the last game 21-10 and create history.