India's top player PV Sindhu defeated her old rival Akane Yamaguchi of Japan 21-15, 20-22, 21-13 in a hard-fought 3-game battle on Friday to advance to the semi-finals of the Thailand Open badminton tournament. Sindhu has won the match against Yamaguchi in 51 minutes.
Sindhu will take on third seed Chen Yu Fei of China in the semi-finals. Reports say that Sindhu ranked 7th in the world, has made her career record 14-9 after this win against the number one player in the rankings Yamaguchi. In the quarterfinals, Sindhu won the first game easily but lost the second game in a close battle. In the deciding game, Sindhu did not look back after holding her rhythm and won the game easily and made it to the last four.
Reports are rife that two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu has made it to the women's singles quarterfinals of the Thailand Open here on Thursday and is the only Indian player left in the badminton tournament. World number 7 and sixth seed Sindhu defeated Sim Yu Jin 21-16 21-13 in just 37 minutes in the second-round match. Yu Jin has played a key role in leading Korea to the Uber Cup title.
Sindhu, who defeated world number 62 Lauren Lam of the United States in the first round, will take on second seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the next round. Yamaguchi defeated Korea's Kim Ga Yun 21-23 21-15 21-16 in another second-round match. Kidambi Srikanth, who played a key role in India's title win in the Thomas Cup, has been ruled out of the BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament due to giving a walk over to her opponent in the second round of the men's singles event.
8th seed Srikanth has also given a walkover to his Ireland rival Enhat Nguen. The reason for giving him a walkover is not known. World number 11 Srikanth had defeated Bryce Leverdez of France 18-21 21-10 21-16 in the first round. In the women's singles, Malvika Bansod's campaign is also completely over. He lost 21-16 14-21 14-21 14-21 against Line Christopherson of Denmark in the second round.
India's mixed doubles pair of Ishan Bhatnagar and Tanishaa Kristo have also crashed out after losing in the second round. The Indian duo have suffered a 19-21 20-22 straight game defeat against the sixth-seeded Malaysian pair of Goh Soon Huat and Lei Chevon Jamie. The pair of Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam has also lost 19-21 6-21 to the 5th seeded pair of Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara in the second round of the women's doubles.
Kohli will pray for Mumbai's victory against Delhi Capitals
Wriddhiman Saha and Umesh Yadav win 'heart' even after losing the match
