PV Sindhu produced a superb comeback to defeat Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand in the semifinal of the Malaysia Masters Super 500, winning the contest 13-21, 21-16, 21-13 in 88 minutes. Sindhu who had a 17-1 H2H record over Busanan going into the game had to dig deep to defeat her Thai opponent, who was in stellar form coming into the contest.
Sindhu faces second seed and world no. 7 Wang Zhi Yi of China in the final, the first for the Indian star in over a year, her last appearance in a BWF World Tour final coming in April 2023 at the Spain Masters. Sindhu's most recent BWF tournament win was her first-ever Super 500 title in July 2022, when she had defeated Wang in the final of the Singapore Open.
Both Busanan and Sindhu had played three-game contests in their respective quarterfinals, but any signs of fatigue were non-existent with both players keeping the tempo relatively high. Busanan had done her homework, testing Sindhu's physicality by moving her all over the court, and employing deft flicks to win her points. Sindhu had a spell of leaving Busanan's floaters to the backcourt and misjudging often, leaving the Indian trailing 9-11 at the interval. The Thai player won the next five points after play resumed, and looked firmly in control in the short rallies as Sindhu made plenty of errors attempting to force play. It was a stroll for Busanan as she took the first game 21-13.
With her winning record over Busanan in danger, Sindhu switched course opting for a more defensive approach that had her use all her powers of retrieval to stay in the rallies. It paid off as the Indian took a slender 11-9 led into the interval after changing leads going into the second game. Sindhu repaid Busanan the favour, now moving her opponent all-over and employing her cross-court smash to finish things off multiple times. The Indian's lifts to the backcourt were staying in and it ended with Sindhu having five game points, which she duly converted, taking the second game 21-16 and forcing a decider.
The contest had gone on for 59 minutes until that point, and the week's exertions appeared to have caught up with Busanan. The Thai player was visibly slower while Sindhu, who had described herself as 'physically a 100%' before the game, carried on at full title. Sindhu raced to 8-2 lead as Busanan collapsed into a heap of errors, the Indian's celebratory yells also rattling her opponent. Sindhu was forcing Busanan into hurried strokes and it paid off as she kept going wide or found the net, with the Indian leading 11-5 at the interval in the decider. The Thai player made a final push, clawing her way back to 10-13, but Sindhu then ramped up the pace as Busanan couldn't keep up, making error after error as Sindhu sent in her entire repertoire of smashes, lifts and drops while also retrieving all of Busanan's aggressive strokes. It proved a recipe beyond the Thai player's reach and as she went wide in the final point, Sindhu had won the 88-minute marathon by a 13-21, 21-16, 21-13 scoreline to enter the final of the Malaysia Masters Super 500.
There were muted celebrations from the Indian, who had little left to give after leaving it all on the court. A first final in over a year bodes well ahead of the Paris Olympics, and what should encourage Sindhu further was her fitness levels staying at a top level throughout the three-game contest.
You can relive the match as it happened, below.