BWF World Championships: PV Sindhu advances, sets up quarter-final clash against Tai Tzu-Ying
PV Sindhu and Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu-Ying last met at the Tokyo Olympics, where the Indian badminton ace lost in straight games.
India’s top badminton player PV Sindhu beat Thailand’s ninth seed Pornpawee Chochuwong in straight games to qualify for the quarter-finals of the women’s singles at the BWF World Championships 2021 in Huelva, Spain on Thursday.
PV Sindhu upstaged her Thai opponent 21-14, 21-18 to stay on course for a second successive world badminton title.
PV Sindhu raced to a 5-1 lead but was pulled back to 9-9 in the first game. The Indian badminton player took advantage of her long reach to take the next five successive points and eventually close it at 21-14.
Chochuwong dug deep in the second game, however, PV Sindhu maintained her dominance to finish the contest in 48 minutes.
This was the fifth win for world No. 7 PV Sindhu over the 10th-ranked Chochuwong from eight meetings. The Thai had beaten Sindhu in the previous two meetings, including the one at the BWF World Tour Finals earlier this month.
The two-time Olympic medallist will next face Chinese Taipei’s top-seed shuttler Tai Tzu-Ying on Friday**,** who accounted for Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour 21-11, 19-21, 21-10 in 48 minutes.
PV Sindhu and Tai Tzu-Ying last met in the Tokyo Olympics semi-finals in which the Indian lost the match.
All the Indian badminton players in men’s singles too managed to advance.
Kidambi Srikanth, India’s highest-seeded shuttler in men’s singles, breezed past China’s Lu Gang Zu 21-10, 21-15 in 40 minutes. The 12th-seeded Indian will face Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands in the quarter-finals.
HS Prannoy then upstaged the 11th-seeded Rasmus Gemke of Denmark in a hard-fought 16-21, 21-8, 22-20 win in an hour and 16 minutes.
Lakshya Sen, meanwhile, breezed past Kevin Cordón of Guatemala 21-13, 21-8 in 32 minutes.
In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy suffered their seventh straight loss against Thailand’s Rawinda Prajongjai and Jongkolphan Kititharakul. The Indian pair lost the match to the sixth seeds 13-21, 15-21 in 38 minutes.
In the men’s doubles, eighth seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went down to the ninth-seeded Malaysian duo of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi 20-22, 21-18, 15-21 in 68 minutes. This was the third loss for the Indian pair against the Malaysians in five meetings.