Two-time Olympic medallist Indian shuttler PV Sindhu registered a dominant straight games win over Turkey’s Neslihan Yigit to enter the women’s singles semifinals of the Indonesia Masters Super 750 badminton tournament in Bali on Friday.
Later on, in an all-Indian quarterfinal, former world No 1 Srikanth Kidambi continued his good recent form with a win over compatriot HS Prannoy, easing into the final four after a 21-7 21-18 scoreline.
Reigning world champion Sindhu, seeded third, scripted a convincing 21-13 21-10 win over the unseeded Yigit in 35 minutes to extend her head-to-head record against the Turkish shuttler to 4-0.
The 26-year-old from Hyderabad had beaten Yigit last month as well in the Denmark Open.
Sindhu, who has got relatively easy opponents until now, will next run into Akane Yamaguchi in the semis. The top seed from Japan beat the fifth seed Pornpawee Chochuwong 8-21, 21-12, 21-10.
Srikanth and Prannoy battled each other for a place in the men’s singles semifinals after superb wins in the round of 16. Srikanth had defeated sixth seed and local favourite Jonatan Christie while Prannoy had stunned reigning Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen, both matches going the distance.
Srikanth was at his vintage best and gave away just seven points in a lop-sided first game.
The second game was more evenly matched as Prannoy made a strong recovery. He started the proceedings aggressively, racing to a 5-2 lead and then 10-5 but Srikanth came from behind to snatch the lead at the mid-game interval 11-10.
Having gained momentum, Srikanth then extended his lead to 15-12 and despite Prannoy levelling the proceedings once again, he sealed the match to reach his second consecutive semifinals. He will now take on Denmark’s Anders Antonsen, who is seeded third, in the semifinal. Antonsen defeated Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn 21-11, 21-17 in the quarterfinal. The Dane has a 2-1 record against Srikanth, with their most recent meeting at the World Tour Finals earlier this year. Antonsen won then in three games, 15-21 21-16 21-18.
In women’s singles, although Yamaguchi is currently ranked third in the world and is the top seed, Sindhu has a superior 12-7 head-to-head record against the Japanese shuttler and has won both the meetings between the two this year. Most recently, Sindhu had won their quarterfinal meeting at Tokyo 2020. Yamaguchi, however, is the most in-form women’s singles shuttler right now, post Olympic Games.
(with PTI inputs)
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