It was heartbreak for Indian fan after ace shuttler, PV Sindhu lost her semi-final encounter against Japan's Akane Yamaguchi at All England Open Championships despite exhibiting top-class fitness under incredibly testing conditions in Birmingham on Saturday. Yamaguchi held her nerves to register a hard-fought three-game victory 19-21, 21-19, 21-18 over Sindhu in a gripping semi-final which lasted for an hour and 19 minutes. With this win, Yamaguchi improved her head-to-head record 4-6 against Sindhu.

Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi will now meet World No. 1 and defending champion Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in Sunday's final. Tai Tzu defeated China's Chen Yufei 21-15, 20-22, 21-13 in the other semi-final. Playing her maiden All England Open semi-final, PV Sindhu continued from where she had left as she opened the first game with a body smash to earn her first point and soon race to a 6-0 lead. Yamaguchi fought back to win few points but the lanky Indian went into the break at 11-5 with a six-point advantage. Sindhu, however, kept her calm to seal the first game 21-19 in just 20 minutes time.

The second game saw Sindhu trailing 3-4, after the initial exchanges, as her drop shot found the net followed by 26 shots rally. Both of them were soon locked at 9-9 but the World No. 2 Yamaguchi surged ahead 11-9 at the mid-game break. World No. 3 Sindhu made it 12-all and that was followed by a riveting 44-shot rally. However, Yamaguchi maintained her momentum as she came up with a fine cross-court smash to take 17-14 lead. The Japanese then forced the match into the decider by winning the game 21-19.