PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen enter semifinals of India Open

NEW DELHI: Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and world championship bronze medallist Lakshya Sen registered contrasting wins to advance to the women’s and men’s singles semifinals, respectively, at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open badminton on Friday.
Top seed Sindhu, a former world champion, got the better of compatriot Ashmita Chaliha 21-7, 21-18 in 36 minutes, while Sen rallied his way to a hard-fought 14-21, 21-9, 21-14 victory over HS Prannoy in another all-Indian quarterfinals.
The 26-year-old from Hyderabad set up a women’s singles last-four clash with Thailand’s sixth seed Supanida Katethong, who entered the semifinals after the third seeded Yeo Jia Min of Singapore pulled out of the tournament due to “high fever”.
Sen, seeded third, will square off against either Malaysia’s Ng Tze Yong or Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen in the semifinals.
In the other women’s semifinal, Aakarshi Kashyap will face second seeded Thai Busanan Ongbamrungphan after the Indian notched up a 21-12, 21-15 win over compatriot Malvika Bansod on Friday.
Busanan trounced USA’s Lauren Lam 21-12, 21-8 in another last-eight clash.
The last time Sindhu was up against Chaliha, at the 83rd Yonex-Sunrise Senior National Championship in 2019, the youngster from Assam had produced a spirited performance.
On Friday, Chaliha took time to get into the groove and put up a good fight in the second game but couldn’t stop Sindhu from walking away with the match.
Sindhu came out all guns blazing in the opening game, jumping to a 11-5 lead at the interval and then reeling off the last 10 points to earn the bragging rights.
Chaliha gave a better account of herself in the second game as she tied 9-9 before Sindhu managed a slender one-point advantage at the break. Sindhu zoomed to 15-11 but Chaliha again clawed her way back to 15-15.
Thereafter, Sindhu switched gears and grabbed four match points. Chaliha saved two match points before Sindhu closed out the match.
—PTI

 

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