In an exciting clash, Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu prevailed over compatriot Saina Nehwal in a hard-fought straight-game encounter to advance to the semifinals of the India Open Super Series at New Delhi on Thursday.
Sindhu emerged victorious over her senior pro 21-16, 22-20 in the much-anticipated contest to set up a clash with second seeded Korean Sung Ji Hyun in the semifinals on Saturday.
Saina, a London Olympics bronze medallist, and Sindhu had previously met each other just once in an international competition – at the 2014 Syed Modi International –where Saina had won in straight games.
In the quarter-final at India Open, Nehwal and Sindhu were going neck to neck until 9-9 in the first game of the match. Thereafter, Nehwal, in the pursuit of playing aggressive shots committed many unforced errors and Sindhu took the first game 21-16.
In the second game, Nehwal came back stronger and pulled off many winners. She continued to play an aggressive game and earned a game point at 20-19.
But then, Nehwal, unfortunately, served the shuttle on the net. Sindhu wasn’t going to let go of the gift given to her.
She immediately wrapped up the match with a 22-20 victory.
They had played against each other in PBL early this year with Sindhu having got an upper hand. They had also faced each other in the Indian Badminton League in 2013 when Saina emerged victorious.
Earlier in the day, second seeded Korean Sung Ji Hyun edged out defending champion Ratchanok Intanon, seeded fifth, 21-16 22-20, while fourth seeded Akane Yamaguchi staved off a challenge from former All England champion Nozomi Okuhara, seeded seventh, 21-13 11-21 21-18 in an all-Japanese contest.
In men's singles, two-time runners-up Viktor Axelsen of Denmark eked out a hard-fought 19-21, 21-14, 21-16 win over Chinese Taipei's Tzu Wei Wang to reach the semifinals.
(With inputs from PTI)
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