China's current highest women's singles ranking player in the world Sun Yu survived the thrilling challenge that the second top-ranked Carolina Marin of Spain rendered during their 2016 BWF World Superseries Finals opener in Dubai's Hamdan Sports Complex on Wednesday.

According to the match result in the official website of the BWF, the 22-year-old Chinese badminton ace scored a hard-fought  straight-set 21-18, 24-22 win against the reigning Summer Olympic Games champion. The world no. 6 Sun needed an exhausting 59 minutes to wrap up the match and register her third victory over the Spaniard in five attempts since 2012.

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Sun will face Rio Games silver medalist PV Sindhu of India in the next match of the group phase. Sindhu, who was recently named Most Improved Player of the Year by the BWF last Monday, defeated Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in three sets 12-21, 21-8, 21-15 that lasted for an hour and three minutes.

The upcoming badminton clash between the two elite professional shuttlers in the world will be their seventh official meetings since the 2011 Badminton Asia Youth Under 19 Championships. Both players have a head-to-head matchup record of 3-3, with the 21-year-old Sindhu registering the latest victory when the Indian badminton star defeated Sun at the BWF World Superseries Thaihot China Open last month in Fuzhou.

"I played against Sun Yu recently at the China Open and I know it is not going to be an easy match," Sindhu said in a published report of The National.

"We know each other's game, so it really depends on our strategy for the day and whoever can implement it on the court, and change and adapt when necessary, will be the winner," she added.

Marin, on the other hand, will be playing 2016 Denmark Open winner Yamaguchi and cannot afford to lose the match to be able to keep her campaign in the prestigious USD 1 million badminton competition alive. The two-time world champion is gunning for her maiden World Superseries Finals title.

Tagssun yu, Carolina Marin, bwf rankings, BWF World Superseries, dubai world superseries finals, pv sindhu