Jakarta, Aug 13:
Two-time bronze-medallist P V Sindhu stunned Olympic champion and former World No. 1 Chinese Li Xuerui in a hard-fought contest, while Saina Nehwal sailed into the women’s singles quarterfinals after an easy win in the World Badminton Championship here today.
With this victory, Sindhu has moved a step closer to claiming a hat-trick of medals in the World championship.
The 11th seeded Sindhu, who clinched the bronze medal in 2013 and 2014 editions of this tournament, posted an upset win over Xuerui 21-17 14-21 21-17 in a battle that lasted 50 minutes.
London Olympics bronze-medallist Saina, on the other hand, overcame the 14th-seeded Sayaka Takahashi of Japan 21-18 21-14 in 47 minutes.
If Saina and Sindhu are able to win their respective quarterfinal matches, they would both be assured of at least a bronze medal each.
Sindhu will next take on eighth seeded Sung Ji-hyun of South Korea and Saina would be up against the winner of the match between Wang Yihan and Bae Yeon Ju.
The World No. 13 Sindhu, who had spent most of the time this season nursing an injury and struggling for form, today gave a glimpse of her previous self.
Sindhu made her intentions clear from the very beginning as she opened with a 5-1 lead in the first game and simply surged ahead, never letting her higher ranked opponent catch her.
The closest the Chinese came was at 16-17 before Sindhu won three points on the trot to make it 20-16 and eventually close the opening game 21-17.
Xuerui, however, came back strongly in the second game, using all her experience as she dominated from the very first point to steal the game 21-14 and take it to the decider. (PTI)
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