Internet Desk: India’s women star shuttlers PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal have made the country proud as they both reached the semi-finals of the World Badminton Championships last night to assure at least two bronze medals for the nation. The World might see an all Indian final in the World Championships if they both wins their respective semi-final matches tonight. In Men’s division all the hopes for India have shattered after Kidambi Srikanth lost in the quarter-final.
Rio Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu won the bronze medal at the 2013 and 2014 editions, dished out a brilliant performance last night by beating Sun Yu of China 21-14, 21-9 in 39 minutes at the Emirates Arena. The world No. 4 Indian will next take on another Chinese player and world No. 10 Chen Yufei, who saw off former world champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand.
In another semifinal, Saina Nehwal had to fight hard to make it to last four as she beat Kirsty Glimour of Scotland 21-19, 18-21, 21-15 in the quarterfinal dual. She will now lock horns with 7th seed Nozomi Okuhara in the semi-final tonight. The Japanese badminton player beat the defending champion and Rio Olympics Gold medallist Carolina Marin of Spain 21-18, 14-21, 21-15.
Earlier, Srikanth went down fighting 14-21, 18-21 to world No. 1 Son Wan Ho of Korea in men’s singles competition.
Srikanth had emerged as India’s best bet at the event after clinching back-to-back titles at Indonesia and Australia and a final finish at the Singapore Open.
The 24-year-old from Guntur had come into the match with twin victories over Son Wan in June at the Indonesia Open Super Series Premier and Australia Open Super Series but it counted for little as the Korean dished out a near-perfect game to outclass the Indian in a 49-minute clash.