Women’s singles star P.V, Sindhu was the lone Indian to enter the semi-finals of the Badminton World Championships, with Saina Nehwal, B. Sai Praneeth and the mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa losing in the quarter-finals here on Friday.
Third seed Sindu, facing Japanese Nozomi Okuhara, who defeated her at the previous edition’s final, won 21-17, 21-19 in 58 minutes.
In both games, Okuhara was strong at the beginning but once Sindhu caught up with her, the Japanese failed to control the Hyderabadi, who came into the match with a 6-5 record in head-to-head.
In the semi-final, three-time World Championships medallist Sindhu will take on another Japanese, second seed Akane Yamaguchi, who ousted Chinese fifth seed Chen Yufei with a 21-13, 17-21, 21-16 victory in an hour and eight minutes.
