All England Open: Sindhu enters semis after marathon win over Yamaguchi
Birmingham, Mar 20: Reigning world champion P V Sindhu registered a thrilling win over Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi in the quarterfinals of the prestigious All England Open Badminton Championships quarter-finals to enter the top four of the women’s singles event, here.
After losing the opening game, Sindhu made a remarkable comeback to notch up a 16-21 21-16 21-19 win over world number five Yamaguchi in an intriguing contest that lasted an hour and 16 minutes on Friday night.
This will be PV Sindhu’s second All England Open semi-finals after 2018.
‘Today’s match was a good, tough long match I would say. 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,” Sindhu said after the match.
“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,” she added.
The Indian shuttler had come into the match with a 10-7 head-to-head count against the Japanese even though she had lost the last three meetings. So, this win also marked the end of PV Sindhu’s three-match losing streak against Yamaguchi.
(UNI)