Sindhu defeats Yamaguchi, in Hong Kong semis

PV Sindhu came out with a stupendous performance to oust Japanese fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi and enter the semi-finals of the $400,000 Hong Kong Open Superseries badminton tournament on Friday.

The only Indian left in the tournament, the second seeded Sindhu took 37 minutes to beat World No.2 Akane 21-12, 21-19 in the quarter-finals at the Hong Kong Coliseum.

This was World No.3 Sindhu’s fourth victory over the Japanese in six outings and first one of 2017 after losing to her at the French Open Superseries last month.

The 2016 Rio Olympics silver medallist will next face former World Champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the lastfour clash on Saturday. Sixth seed Ratchanok beat Canadian Michelle Li 21-14, 21-16 in 39 minutes in the other quarterfinal.

Sindhu has a poor 1-4 record against the former World No.1 Thai. On Saturday though, she was in supreme form and maintained the lead from the start of the first game. The 20-year-old Japanese wasn’t able to match her opponent’s strokes and the Hyderabadi was able to close the game with ease in 15 minutes.

From 18-12, Sindhu won three consecutive points to move within a game from the semi-finals. Sindhu again took a 3-0 lead in the second game and was looking to replicate what she did in the opener. But Akane wasn’t going to give in that easily.

Akane fought back with some brilliant smashes and displayed her agility to up the ante. At 8-all, Akane found legs to win five straight points and take a 13-8 lead. This was the time when Sindhu showed pure grit to slowly close the gap and levelled the contest at as late as 18-all. In her eagerness to close the game, Akane made a few net errors which gave the Indian extra motivation to try and win more points.

The momentum had swung and Sindhu had turned the tables on the Japanese fifth seed. The three-time World Championships medallist held her nerve at the most crucial time of the encounter to win three of the last four points and enter the semi-finals.

Overall, Sindhu won 42 of the 73 points played in the quarter-final.

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