India's badminton queens PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal set up the much-anticipated women's singles summit clash at the Commonwealth Games after winning their respective semifinals in contrasting fashion here today.
The 22-year-old Olympic silver medallist Sindhu, who had missed the mixed team competition due to an ankle sprain, knocked out defending champion Michelle Li 21-18 21-8 in just 26 minutes while former World No. 1 Saina had to dig deep to struggle past 2014 silver medallist Kristy Gilmour 21-14 18-21 21-17 in 68 minutes.
Sindhu said: "I was more consistent. Even though the first set was close, in the second set I took a huge lead and I finished strong. It was good for me that I finished it in two sets rather than prolonging the match."
"It's definitely a good thing because any win for the country is a good thing and having both the girls in the final is a proud moment for everyone, especially for us because the gold and silver is going to India, which I'm very happy about."
On whether they would train against each other in the lead up to the gold medal match, Sindhu said: "On court, we have to get aggressive against each other but apart from that, we will have our own training session so I don't think we are going to play together. Normally, we don't play because we have other players to go up against."
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