Reigning world champion PV Sindhu reached the semi-final of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 as she beat South Korea’s Sim Yujin in a hard-fought three-game battle in Bali on Friday.
The Indian fought back from a game down to win 14-21, 21-19, 21-19 and reach the last four stage.
In men’s doubles, India’s Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also made their way to the semi-finals. The sixth seeds beat Malaysia’s Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin 21-19, 21-19 in 43 minutes in a hard-fought match.
It’s been a little while but Satwik-Chirag reached the semifinals of a big event (January 2021). And the top seeds Kevin Sukamuljo and Marcus Gideon await tomorrow. The Indonesian stars have shown in recent times they are not invincible, a chance for Satwik-Chirag to make it 1-9 and not 0-10.
In the last match featuring an Indian on Friday, B Sai Praneeth lost in straight games against second seed Viktor Axelsen in the men’s singles quarterfinals.
The Olympic champion maintained an incredibly high level throughout the match, mixing defence and attack immaculately, to win 21-12, 21-8 in 36 minutes.
It was not smooth sailing from Sindhu against Yujin. The Indian started confidently racing to a 7-1 lead before the Japanese pocketed six straight points to draw the first game level.
But once Yujin took a slender 11-10 lead at the break, she didn’t look back and won the game comfortably to grab the early momentum.
The Japanese continued in the same vein in the second game and matched Sindhu stroke for stroke till the first seven points before the Indian upped her game.
Sindhu displayed better control and authority over her strokes and engaged her rival in long rallies to surge ahead 14-8 before Yujin fought back.
Sindhu used her vast experience and held her nerves to draw the contest level.
In the decider, Sindhu enjoyed the early exchanges to race to a comfortable 11-4 lead but the Japanese secured seven consecutive points to make it 11-11.
Sensing trouble, Sindhu took her game to the next level just at the right time to outwit her rival and seal the match in her favour.
Sindhu will now face Ratchanok Intanon in the semi-finals on Saturday.
(With PTI inputs)
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