PV Sindhu provides blinding ray of hope in India's bleak Olympics ; defeats World No. 2 to enter semis

PV Sindhu has always been one of those “Big-Occasion players” - the ones who are 'fine' all year long, but rise to the occasion when the biggest of the big stages comes beckoning. She won her first World Championship medal when she was just 17 and then followed up with another when she was 18. Today was something even bigger – India's chief hope in the event, Saina Nehwal, had crashed and burned, and all hopes had suddenly been shifted on to the 21-year old's shoulders. If that was not enough, she was up against the World No. 2 and 2012 Olympics Silver medalist Wang Yihan, who also had a 4-2 head-to-head record against Sindhu. But, the Chinese was not taking her too easily – Yihan had come over and meticulously studied the Indian's quarterfinal win yesterday.

Sindhu had been very good on the defence, but Yihan was wearing her down. It was Yihan who went into the break with a 3-point lead at 11-8.

Until then, Sindhu had defended all she could, but she was not attacking when the opportunity arrived. To win, she had to take those attacking moments early on in the rally, or they were never going to arrive against the World No. 2.

And take she did.

Having earned the lead, Sindhu went back to her strength and started defending waiting for Yihan to make the errors. And Yihan blinked first - she dumped her return into the net, and Sindhu had 2 set points.

Yihan managed to save both, but an error on the next gave Sindhu her third set point at 21-20. And, Yihan sent the next one just wide, and Sindhu had set 1.

Soon, Sindhu was up 8-3 as errors were coming thick and fast from Yihan's racket. She staged a minor comeback to reach 10-8, but Sindhu won the next point to go into the break at 11-8. The score was the same as the score at break in the first set – but the tables had been exactly reversed and Sindhu looked unstoppable by now.

Yihan closed in again, but on her serve at 12-14, Sindhu advanced to the net, and ended it even before the point began with an explosive smash. Clenched fists, and a huge cry from Sindhu, and the huge Indian crowd roared back its approval.

It was one of the finest games of women's badminton in recent times, at least, especially in the first set. Wang Yihan had not done much wrong in that set, but had made the mistake of catching PV Sindhu on her finest day. Sindhu has a relatively easier semi-final draw against Nozomi Okuhara of Japan, having avoided both defending champion Li Xuerui and World No. 1 Carolina Marin who will be battling it out for a final spot. But if the Hyderabadi lass can reproduce today's performance, an Olympic Gold awaits her and the nation day after tomorrow.