India, July 24 -- Unnati Hooda, 17, has grown up watching PV Sindhu ply her trade on the badminton court. Not only did she admire Sindhu's game but also aspired to play like the double Olympic medallist all her life.

In 2022, the Rohtak shuttler got an opportunity to pick the former world champion's brains when the two were part of India's Uber Cup team. The self-confessed Sindhu fan had, back then, spoken about the learnings from playing alongside her idol while expressing her admiration for Sindhu's "aggression and smashes."

On Thursday, Unnati put those learnings to good effect as she used the same aggression and smashes to conjure the biggest win of her career, beating Sindhu 21-16, 19-21, 21-13 in 73 minutes to enter the women's si...