Copenhagen: On Friday, P.V. Sindhu outlasted second seed Wang Shixian of China 19-21 21-19 21-15 with her gritty and gutsy performance to reach the women’s singles semifinals at the World Championships. Interestingly, Sindhu defeated the same opponent at 2013 World Championships to become the first Indian woman to win a medal at the prestigious tournament.
In the quarterfinal contest that lasted for one hour and 25 minutes, Sindhu dominated the net manage to open up an 11-4 gap early in the first set. However, Wang soon leveled the score at 15-15 before getting past the Indian to pocket the first game.
Disappointed by the first game loss, Sindhu tried to step up her performance in the second set. Although she was trailing 9-11 at interval, Sindhu utilized her smashes to tie the score at 16-16 and several net shots errors from Wang allowed Sindhu to steal the second set with 21-19.
In the decider, after 12-12, Sindhu targeted Wang’s weak backhand to lead at 17-15; Sindhu then reel off with four consecutive points to assure herself of a consecutive bronze medal.
Meanwhile, the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medalist Saina Nehwal, crashed out of the World Badminton Championships losing to top seed Chinese Li Xuerui in the quarter-final.
It was their tenth meeting and the Chinese has won eight times. The last time Nehwal beat Li was more than two years ago, at the Super Series event in Jakarta.
Li will play 16th seed Minatsu Mitani of Japan in the semifinals.
