Rio Olympics: PV Sindhu's FINAL start time in IST, opponent name, TV channel information

Rio de Janeiro, Aug 18: India's PV Sindhu today (August 18) created history by reaching the women's singles badminton final at Rio Olympics 2016. (Who is Sindhu?)

Olympics special site; Photo gallery; Sindhu is in final thanks to this man

Sindhu defeated Japan's Nozomi Okuhara 21-19, 21-10 in the semi-finals on Thursday.

PV Sindhu has created history by reaching the final

The 21-year-old Indian will now face world number one Carolina Marin of Spain on Friday (August 19) in the title clash. Marin beat China's Li Xuerui 21-14, 21-16 in the 1st semi-final. (Reactions from Twitter after Sindhu's win)

Before today, no Indian player had reached the final at Olympics badminton. The final will be played at Riocentro Pavilion.

Sindhu, after a hard-fought first game, had it easy in the second set (from 10-10, she won 11 points in a row to seal the match) to storm into the gold medal match.

World number 10 Sindhu is the 5th Indian woman in Olympic history to win a medal. She is assured of silver now. Karnam Malleswari, Mary Kom, Saina Nehwal, Sakshi Malik were the previous female medal winners for India.

Sindhu, however, is the first Indian woman to get a silver or gold. All past winners had settled for bronze. If the Hyderabad girl wins gold on Friday, she will be only the second individual gold winner for India after shooter Abhinav Bindra (2008 Beijing).

Bindra was quick to tweet, saying he wanted Sindhu to join him in the gold club where he is feeling lonely. "What a player !! @Pvsindhu1 I'm waiting for you to join me in the club. You have no idea how lonely it's been !!!," Bindra wrote.

What a player !! @Pvsindhu1 I'm waiting for you to join me in the club. You have no idea how lonely it's been !!!
— Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) August 18, 2016