BADMINTON CHAMPIONS TIE THE KNOT BEST MATCH OF MY LIFE, SAYS NEHWAL ON MARRYING KASHYAP
BWF WORLD TOUR FINALS Sameer enters semi-finals with Sindhu too advancing after her third consecutive victory
GUANGZHOU: Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu continued her unbeaten run while debutant Sameer Verma also qualified for the semi-finals with a straightgame win in his last group B match at the BWF World Tour Finals, here Friday.
In the last four stage Sindhu will face Ratchanok Intanon, who defeated Michelle Li 21-13, 21-12. The other semi-final will be between Nozomi Okuhara and Akane Yamaguchi.
Playing her third successive year-ending finale, Sindhu produced some deceptive strokes and showed precision during the 35-minute contest to prevail over World No 12 Beiwen Zhang 21-9, 21-15 in a one-sided women’s singles contest to top Group A.
“I was down 2-6 initially but I picked up the lead, so after that I was fine,” Sindhu, the last edition’s runner-up, said after the match.
“I have played a few matches against her after the Indian Open final, so I took it as a fresh match,” said the 23-year-old referring to her Indian Open final loss to Zhang at New Delhi early this year.
“I am happy with the three wins, it is a positive thing. I hope to move forward with the same positivity and do well in the semifinals,” added Sindhu, who won all the three matches of her group.
On the adjacent court, the 24-year-old Sameer showed great athleticism and produced a masterful performance to demolish Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen 21-9, 21-18 in a match that clocked 44 minutes.
After losing the opening match to world no 1 and world champion Kento Momota, Sameer, who qualified for the tournament after defending his title at Syed Modi International last month, recovered well to come up trumps against his other two opponents in Group B.
“I have played him before at Swiss Open so I knew how to go about it. In the second game I was losing so after some advice from my coach, I kept my patience and now I am ready to play the semifinals,” said Sameer.
In the women’s singles, Sindhu, who had stunned world no 1 Tai Tzu Ying in her previous match, didn’t make a good start against Zhang, conceding a 0-4 lead early on.
But she clawed back at 6-6 after producing some angled returns.
The world no 6 Indian kept the pressure and eked out a threepoint advantage at the break after Zhang hit out. The Indian then sealed the opening game comfortably in 15 minutes when Zhang failed to reach a shot at the fore court.
After the change of sides, Sindhu continued to dominate and sealed the easily at 21-12.