New Delhi, Apr 26: P V Sindhu kept India’s hopes alive by entering into the women’s singles semifinals at the India Open Super Series Badminton Championship after beating Yui Hashimoto of Japan in straight games here today.
However, H S Prannoy, B Sai Praneeth and RMV Gurusaidutt lost their respective quarterfinal matches to crash out of the men’s singles event.
The 17-year-old P V Sindhu, who had beaten former World No.1 Shixian Wang of China at the Badminton Asia Championships in Taipei last week, continued with her fine form to get the better of Hashimoto 21-16 21-16 in 47 minutes.
Hashimoto, who defeated Saina Nehwal yesterday, looked no match for Sindhu.
In the opening game, Sindhu, seeded eighth, started off with a bang, quickly opening up a 11-4 lead and in no time she extended it to 19-7. But just when things seemed to be in total control of the Indian, Hashimoto raised her game.
She went on to win nine points on a trot, mainly taking advantage of unforced errors from Sindhu, to reduce the gap to 16-19.
The Hyderabadi, who had the cushion of a 10-point lead, however showed a lot of patience and clinched the next two points to seal off the first game, 21-16.
The second game was a neck-and-neck battle with none of the players sparing an inch. There was never a difference of more than three points between them and that continued till 14-14 before Sindhu won another three straight points to surge ahead to 17-14.
Although the Japanese earned a couple of more points but in the end, Sindhu comfortably prevailed over her opponent.
The second game involved a lot of long rallies, which mostly Sindhu won with her powerful smashes.
“My opponent made mistakes and that made all the difference,” said Sindhu after the match.
Sindhu will now take on World No. 6 Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, who earlier on the day defeated India’s Arundhati Pantawane in one of the quarter-finals. (PTI)
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