Olympic medallist Sun Yanan won her bout when it mattered the most to enable Harayana Hammers pip UP Dangal 5- 4 on Thursday to set up a title clash with Punjab Royals in the Pro Wrestling League in New Delhi. The Chinese scored her third straight victory over Vinesh Phogat to throw UP Dangal out of the competition. She won 4-1 in a tense and bitter semifinal that ended in tears.

The final will be a repeat of last year and the Hammers will seek revenge against the Royals, for the defeat in PWL 2. The tie was a close affair, with the two teams giving it their all and taking it all the way to the wire, with Haryana winning the deciding ninth match. The Hammers jumped into an early lead, with Olympic gold medalist Vladimir winning the 57-kg men’s opening bout.

He was stunned in the first period though, with Nitin Rathi taking the first point. Vladimir, however, turned Nitin over to snatch 5 points in the second round. He still had to be on his guard as Nitin looked for points with his aggression.

The Georigian eventually won 6-3, Zsanett Nemeth, promptly restored parity for Dangal by notching a hard-fought 3-1 win over Commonwealth Championship silver medalist Pooja Sihag in the 76-kg women’s category.

Zsanett raced to a 3-0 lead in the first round itself and decided to defend in the next to hold on to her lead. World Championship silver medalist Khetik Tsabolov then pulled off a sensational victory over Bekzod Abdurakhmonov to put the Dangals in the lead. It was a fascinating 74-kg tussle that had the crowds on their feet.

Uzbekistan’s Bekzod took an early 2-0 lead but his attempt to pin Khetik backfired, and he ended up conceding 6 points. Khetik took advantage of the change in fortunes to add two more points to take a healthy 8-2 lead. Bekzod tried to fight back but he had yielded too much ground to force a recovery.

World Championship leader Helen Maroulis then scored a fine victory to take the Hammers to a 3-1 ahead. Helen beat Vanesa Kaldzinskaya 5-4, although the match was not as close as the final score suggests. Maroulis was comfortably ahead 3-0 after the first period and was 5-2 up till the last minute.

Vanesa managed to push her off the mat just after regulation time to reduce the margin. Olympic gold medallist Jamaladdin Magomedov and local star Geeta Phogat won the next two bouts to level the tie 3-3 for Dangal.

Jamaladdin easily overcame national champion Sumit Malik 7-0 in the 125-kg clash while Geeta Phogat warded off a desperate attempt from Sarita Mor. Geeta took an early 1-0 lead and then made it 3-0 by the break.

She decided to go on the defensive which could have ended in disaster for her. Sarita managed two points and could have turned it into an upset if she had scored one more point. In a battle between Indians, Roublejit Singh Rangi got the better of Mandeep to put the Hammers back in the lead.

Roublejit took a 1-point advantage into the break, and made it 5-3 for a well-deserved victory. Dangal stormed right back into the tie, with Bajrang Punia downing a valiant Harphool Gulia 5-3. Harphool started on the front foot but Bajrang quickly made it 4-1 before winning 8-1.