Hong Kong Open | Sindhu continues Superseries dream run to enter final

PV Sindhu and localite Ngan Yi Cheung had faced each other twice before, and the Indian had come out on top on both the occasions. However, the Indian would have spent time studying Cheung's matchplay despite her lowly world rank after the World No. 26 had accounted for former World No.1 Saina Nehwal yesterday with her crafty play and stubborn defending.

The Indian managed to stay close to Cheung with her aggressive play, and in fact, went into the break with a two-point lead at 11-9 thanks to a string of unforced errors from the World No. 26.

In the second point of the second game, Cheung showed glimpses of the returning prowess that saw her oust Saina Nehwal yesterday. Cheing dived and tumbled and produced off-balance returns, but she had no answer to Sindhu's final body-smash. Immediately after at 2-1, Sindhu showed some silky skills as she ended Cheung's aggressive attacking streak with a simple and subtle flick of her wrist sending the shuttle across the court into no man's land.

A couple of decisive netsmashes on consecutive points took Sindhu to 6-2, but Cheung produced her trademark jump-drop from the backcourt to take back serve at 7-4. That appeared to have given the local some impetus as she soon smashed her way to equalize at 7-7.

Despite Sindhu dominance, Cheung did not give up, and in fact, produced a series of acrobatic arching smashes at 15-11 to break Sindhu's defence and gain the serve. It was a lucky 50-50 drop that ended Sindhu's way that broke Cheung's mini-rally to 15-13.

Sindhu then continued to occupy the forecourt in an effort to curtail Cheung's wily drops and managed to earn match point thanks to a smash into the net from her opponent. The Olympic silver-medalist closed out the match, ironically enough, with a wily drop from the back that caught her opponent off-guard.