World champion PV Sindhu entered the women's singles semi-finals of All England Open Championships in Birmingham on Friday. In the quarter-final clash, the top Indian shuttler rallied to defeat Japanese third seed Akane Yamaguchi. (More Sports News)
Sindhu prevailed 16-21, 21-16, 21-19, in one hour and 16 minutes in the Super 1000 tournament.
"I am playing against her after quite a long time, I think 2019. We haven't played at all. I'm sure she would have trained very hard. Today's match was a good, tough long match I would say," Sindhu, currently ranked world number seven, said after the match.
"In the first game I was making a lot of errors and hitting them out because I was on the side with the stronger drift. The second game, it was in my favour. A lot of long rallies. It was important to get that second game.
In the semi-finals, Sindhu, seeded 5th, will face sixth seed Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand. The Indian has an overwhelming 4-1 lead against the world No. 11 Thai.
"In the third game, it was very crucial. My coach was very supportive, he was making sure I controlled the shuttle well. Each point was very important. Overall, it was anybody's game but I am happy to be on the winning side."
"I really fought hard to come to here. It's important to be focused and go back and rest myself to come back stronger. Pornpawee has been playing really well, so I'm sure I have to be very well prepared and give it 100 percent."
Pornpawee beat Beiwen Zhang of USA 7-21, 21-13, 21-9, in 38 minutes in her quarterfinal match.
Earlier, Lakshya Sen crashed out of the All England Open Championships quarterfinals after losing to Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands 17-21 21-16 17-21.
Ashwini and Sikki had defeated 13th ranked duo of Bulgarian sisters Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva 21-17 21-10 in just 33 minutes in the second-round match on Thursday night.
World number 10 men's doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, seeded sixth, had crashed out of the event after losing 16-21 21-11 17-21 to Denmark's Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in the second round.
It was their second consecutive defeat against the world number 13 combine, having lost to them at Swiss Open earlier this month.
In the men's singles, Sameer Verma too suffered a second successive loss to third seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark, going down 22-20 21-10 in the second round.
