Thailand Open: PV Sindhu advances into the semi-finals

Ace Indian shutter PV Sindhu advanced into the semi-finals beating Soniia Cheah of Malaysia in straight sets at the 350,000 Thailand Open badminton tournament on Friday.

The second seed Indian upstaged Cheah 21-17, 21-13, in just 36 minutes to progress into the next round, where she will face World No.29 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia against whom she has 2-0 record having beaten her in both the meetings.

Sindhu, the last Indian in the foray did not have a great start and was trailing 8-12 at the break of the first set. However, she came back strong to clinch the first game.

The start of the second game was much better for the World No. 3 but the game moved at a snail’s pac with both the shutters keeping up with each other. Standing at 11-10, Sindhu led by just one point at the break but notched up a comfortable victory with nine straight points.

Cheah saved three after the break but in the end the lead was too big for her to stage a comeback.

The Olympic medallist had defeated Hong Kong’s Yip Pui Yin 21-16, 21-14 in her pre-quarterfinal clash.

Also Read: PV Sindhu storms into quarterfinals of Thailand Open

Meanwhile, the mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa failed to put up a fight losing 21-11, 21-16 in just 29 minutes to Japan’s Yuki Kaneko and Mayu Matsumoto.

Fourth seed HS Prannoy suffered a shock exit losing 18-21, 14-21 to Indonesian qualifier Sony Dwi Kuncoro in a 35 minutes match.

Pashupalli Kashyap went down fighting to Japanese Kanta Tsuneyama losing 21-18, 18-21, 21-19 in a three-game thriller that lasted an hour and eight minutes. Another pair of Manu-Sumeeth lost to Japanese combine of Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe 24-22, 13-21, 19-21 in an hour and six minutes.