Sindhu beats Yamaguchi, Srikanth loses
DUBAI: Already assured of a semifinal spot, PV Sindhu dispatched Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi in straight games but Kidambi Srikanth’s dismal run ended with another defeat at the USD one million Dubai Superseries Final here on Friday.
World No. 3 Sindhu, an Olympic silver medallist, thrashed World No. 2 Yamaguchi 21-9, 21-13 in just 36 minutes to top group A in women’s singles at the Sheikh Hamdan Indoor Stadium here.
However, world no. 4 Srikanth suffered his third straight loss in men’s singles Group B, going down 17-21, 21-19, 14-21 to All England Championship finalist Chinese Shi Yuqi in the last group stage match.
Sindhu, who clinched two Superseries titles this season before winning a silver at the World Championship, will face China’s Chen Yufei, who saw off Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon 21-18, 13-21, 21-18 in another Group B match.
Sindhu made a rousing start to the match, zooming to a 5 -0 lead. Sindhu entered the opening break at 11-1 with a superb return and continued to rule the roost after the breather, reaching 15-4. Yamaguchi won points sporadically, exploiting the Indian’s backhand a couple of times, but she failed to curb her unforced errors.
At 18-6, Sindhu committed a fault at the net but she followed that with a smash and gained 13 game points when her opponent went wide again. Yamaguchi saved a couple of game points before Sindhu wrapped up the opening game.
The second game started with Sindhu and Yamaguchi splitting the initial four points. The Japanese narrowed it to 8-9 before an accurate down-the-line smash and an error at the net by Yamaguchi helped Sindhu enter the lemon break with a three- point advantage. But Sindhu had it easy from then.