Indian shuttler Pusarla Venkata Sindhu pulled off a huge upset in the women's singles of the Rio Olympics by beating world No. 2 Wang Yihan of China in their quarter-final match early on Wednesday IST. The ninth-seeded Indian prevailed 22-20 21-19 in 55 minutes to enter the semi-finals in her debut appearance at the Olympics. The 21-year-old Indian is now unbeaten in four matches so far.
After being asked to begin serving in the first game, Sindhu was trailing 8-12, before she fought back to level the points tally for the first time at 15-15. Some sensational rallying from both players led Wang to save two game points, before Sindhu prevailed 22-20.
The world No. 10 Indian carried her momentum into the second game and led for most of it, even enjoying a five-point lead at one stage, before Wang, fighting for survival, rallied to level the score 18-18. However, Sindhu upped her game and won herself two match points, before taking the game 21-19 and, thereby, booked a spot in the semis.
Sindhu, who is now just one win away from an Olympic medal, will play her semi-final on Thursday at 5.50 pm IST against Nozomi Okuhara of Japan.
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