Sindhu stuns world champ Carolina to enter Denmark Open final

Indian shuttler P.V. Sindhu stunned two-time reigning world champion Carolina Marin of Spain to extend her dream run into the final of the $650,000 Denmark Open Superseries Premier here on Saturday.

Double World Championships bronze medallist Sindhu beat the second seed 21-15, 18-21, 21-17 in an hour and 14 minutes in the women's singles semi-final at the Odense Sports Park.

In the final, Sindhu will face 2012 Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China, who got past seventh seed Sung Ji Hyun of South Korea 21-8, 20-22, 21-10 in 56 minutes.

Also, 20-year-old Sindhu improved her head-to-head record against the 22-year-old Carolina to 2-3.

Sindhu had earlier registered upsetting wins over third seed Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei and sixth seed Yihan Wang of China in the previous two matches.

In the first game between Sindhu and Carolina, the Hyderabadi opened up a 9-4 lead. The Spaniard was not able to bridge the gap and lost 15-21.

Carolina's game suffered due to some poor line judgements and she regularly hit easy shots on to the net.

When she corrected those mistakes in the second game, she looked a different player and held a 11-5 advantage that facilitated her 21-18 win.

Coming to the third game, Sindhu was sharper and got her act together to give stiff competition to the current All England champion.

However, Carolina managed a 12-9 lead that swelled to 15-11 as the Pullella Gopichand-coached Sindhu struggled with her serve and net play.

But Sindhu was quick to stop the poor play and earned three consecutive points to bring the arrears to one at 15-14. After Carolina got another point, Sindhu bagged six points on the trot to not only equalise but also hold a 20-16 lead before winning the game 21-17.

The rest of the Indian participants, including world No.1 Saina Nehwal crashed out in the second round.