Carolina Marín makes history with world championship hat-trick

The Huelva-born 25-year-old, universally acknowledged to be the best Spanish badminton player in living memory and quite possibly the best in the world, once again faced a rival she knows very well after their final match at the Rio 2016 Olympics saw Carolina taking the gold and Pusarla walk away with the silver.

But at today's (Sunday's) final in Nanjing, Pusarla was at the top of her form and playing very strongly, barely giving Carolina an inch.

The Indian player's tactics also began to unsettle the Spaniard – Pusarla began to slow down her serves to the point where Carolina ended up complaining to the umpire.

After a disappointing beginning to the first set, Carolina bounced back and the match became a battle of wits rather than strength, with the young Spanish legend squeezing ahead to take the set 21-19.

Pusarla is one of the few women in badminton today with the skill and ability to be a match for Carolina – of the 12 matches they have played against each other, Pusarla has now won five, including the most recent, meaning she is far from being a pushover and brains were the pair's biggest weapon rather than brawn in the second set with each trying to unseat the other: in their psychological battle, the women used tactics such as drop shots and delaying serves and spectators were unable to call who would cave in first.

It was Carolina's mental strength that won out in the end and had her dominating the second half of the set in which it was all downhill to her comfortable 21-10 victory.

Carolina's world championship hat-trick is as yet unprecedented – as well as the 2018 title, she also came out on top in the 2014 and 2015 editions and, earlier this year, won her fourth European Championship title.