Sindhu moves into semis; Saina, Prannoy lose
The favourite following injury withdrawals of Tai Tzu Ying and Ratchanok Intanon, PV Sindhu was supposed to cruise into the business end of the $3.7 million Singapore Open. But it hasn’t exactly been a walk in the park for the No 3 seed as the former world champion has struggled to dispose of much lower ranked opponents.
In Round 2, the two-time Olympic medallist was pushed to the brink by Vietnamese Thuy Linh Nguyen—a qualifier who is ranked 52 spots below Sindhu. On Friday, unseeded Chinese Han Yue almost pulled off an upset before the world No 7 found her rhythm to eventually come out on top with a 17-21, 21-11, 21-19 win in little over an hour.
Sindhu committed too many errors, costing her the first game before rallying to win the second. Without a powerful weapon like the smash, Han’s ally was placement and precision which frustrated Sindhu.
The third seed looked down and out trailing 9-14 in the decider but used all her experience and aggression to fight back brilliantly and win seven points on the trot. She approached the net many more times to take charge of the proceedings. It was still edgy at the end as Han levelled the scores, first at 18-all then at 19-all before Sindhu used her stinging smashes to win the next two points and enter the semi-finals of the Super 500 event.
Sindhu will next take on unseeded Japanese Saena Kawakami against whom she has a 2-0 head-to-head record.
Sindhu will be the only Indian playing at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Saturday as former champion Saina Nehwal, HS Prannoy and the men’s doubles pairing of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila lost their respective quarter-finals.
Playing her first quarter-final since March 2021, Saina was looking in much better shape and form than she has in the past couple of years. The Indian shuttler had one foot in the last four as she earned two match points but Saina wasted both the two opportunities and Japan’s Aya Ohori grabbed the opportunity with both hands to claim the 63-minute contest on her first match point, winning 21-13, 15-21, 22-20.
She may have lost the match but the tournament proved Saina is back in the reckoning even though she is not 100 percent fit yet. The Olympic medallist played smartly, used cross court drops well from the back of the court and her smashes stung even though movement was restricted due to a heavily strapped knee.
Prannoy’s run came to an end too, as he lost 21-12, 14-21, 18-21 in an hour and three minutes to Japan’s Kodai Naraoka.
In men’s doubles, Indonesian second seeds Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan accounted for the loss of Arjun and Kapila, beating them 10-21, 21-18, 21-17 in 49 minutes.
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