It was a momentous occasion for both the players, who were making their debut appearance in an Olympic final match.
This was also Sindhu's debut Olympic games and Marin's second.
Sindhu took the first point of the match, but slowly lost momentum as Marin picked her's.
Marin, the world number directed the pace of the rallies and was at one time leading by six points, but a change of shuttle by Sindhu slowly closed the gap.
Trailing by 16-19, Sindhu took the last five points without dropping any to take the first set 21-19, sending to Indian faithfuls to a dizzy.
Starting the second set, Marin took the first four points with ease, allowing little time for Sindhu to react.
The world number one took the second set 21-12.
A string of unforced errors from the Indian shuttler facilitated the result in the Spaniard's favour.
The third set was evenly poised at 1-1, but Marin took the first two point, keeping her momentum from the second set.
At 4-9, Sindhu upped the ante to level the game 10-10 and looked good for the Gold.
Her bodyline taps proved too good for the Spaniard, who mainly relied on her speed.
Marin, 23, the older of the two, however, used all her experience to expand the lead and was soon leading at 16-12, before Sindhu fought back to close the gap at 14-16.
The Spaniard also used all her guile to dictate terms, as she took timely break to manage the game swiftly.
Marin, who had met Sindhu on six occasions prior to this game, had a 4-2 lead in her favour.
Both her wins over the Spaniard had come on a decider, and one was hoping that the same would happen after the Indian took the first set and the second was won by the Spaniard and the game was stretched till the last set.
In the end, Marin was too strong a player for Sindhu to overcome.
Sindhu too wrote herself on the pages of history books by virtue of her Silver medal.
She now ranks higher in terms of her silverware, ahead of Saina Nehwal, who won a Bronze in London Olympics in 2012.
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