Aparna, who led the women's team to the bronze in team championships, will now meet top seed and world No 10 Kelly Morgan of Wales for the gold tomorrow while Gopi Chand's first real test at these Games will be when he faces his semifinal opponent Wong Choong Han of Malaysia, also tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the Indian doubles pairs of George Thomas and Marcos Bristow lost to top seed S Archer and C Hunt of England while Nathan Robertson and Julian Robertson, also of England, crushed Jaseel Ismail and Vincent Lobo 15-3, 15-4.

While Gopi Chand won easily (15-1, 15-6) against John Leung of Wales, Aparna's struggle against Julia Mann hogged the limelight in the packed stadium. Aparna got the Malaysian crowd on herside with her struggle in the third game.

Down 3-10, Aparna saved two match points and then inch by inch crawled back to draw level. It was an incredible fightback for the Indian who looked sluggish throughout.

Aparna won the first game 11-8. But then her troubles began. She started making unforced errors and was very erratic in the rallies. Julia used her longer reach to retrieve and kept pushing Aparna on the baseline to try and tire her. Aparna hardly had any shots during the second game and from 5-3 slid to 6-9 and lost.

Seeing the Indian tiring, Julia began the third game by attacking more to control the proceedings. After trailing 3-5, the England player drew level and then began building up her lead by sending the shuttle to the back of the court and waiting for Aparna to make the mistake.

Down 3-10, Aparna saved the situation with a drop shot. Julie had another match point but Aparna courageously fought back and got the point with a placing. From 4-10, the Indian rallied back magnificentlyand began exploiting the situation as Julia began tiring to draw level at 10-all.

Then it was the turn of Julie to save a match-point but on the next ocassion, Aparna placed to the right of the English player and won. It is the first time by an Indian has reached the final after Syed Modi's gold medal winning effort in 1982.

Her opponent in the final Kelly Morgan, unbeaten so far, defeated England's Tracey Hallam quite easily, 11-6, 11-4.