Sindhu gets her Dubai revenge against Sun Yu; Srikanth exits
glasgow — Continuing her good run, India’s PV Sindhu won her quarterfinal match to advance, while Kidambi Srikanth lost his men’s singles encounter and bowed out of the World Badminton Championships here on Friday.
Sindhu, fourth seed, defeated fifth seed Sun Yu of China 21-14, 21-9 in a match which lasted around 40 minutes. She will now take on Chen Yufei of China, who continued her winning run by beating eighth seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand 14-21, 2116, 21-12.
Sindhu began the match on a positive note, opening up a 3-0 lead. The Chinese clawed her way back and reduced the gap to one point.
With the score reading 5-4 in Sindhu’s favour, she won six straight points to win back the lead 11-4 at the break.
After play resumed, the story continued with Sindhu steamrolling her way towards winning the first game.
Sun Yu tried to stop the juggernaut but could not do much as Sindhu raced to win the opening game 21-14.
After the change of ends, Sindhu continued her good run to take an 8-4 lead. The Chinese had no answer for Sindhu’s precision play and made too many errors allowing Sindhu to go into the break 11-4.
The World No.4 resumed from where she left and Sun Yu tried to launch a comeback but Sindhu maintained her stronghold and opened up a huge lead.
Sun Yu tried delaying the inevi- table but Sindhu eventually sealed the match 21-9 to march into the semifinals.
“Well I am happy with the way I have played today (Friday) and I am pleased with the results. Even though I won, I must admit that Sun Yu is not an easy player to play against and the last time I played against her I lost to her (in Dubai 2016),” Sindhu said after the match.
“I am happy with the performance today. I went on the court thinking I need to give my best and play my game,” she added.
Commenting about her next encounter with Chen, Sindhu said: “She is a good player and she is playing well. It is never easy in the semifinal of a World Championship, anything can happen. I have to be prepared for everything.”
In the other match, Srikanth was beaten by top seed Son Wan Ho of South Korea 21-14, 21-18 in 48 minutes.