PV Sindhu pips top seed Han Yue in quarterfinals to advance to Malaysia Masters semifinals

Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu pipped Han Yue of China 21-13 14-21 21-12 in the quarterfinals of the ongoing Malaysia Masters on Friday (May 24) to book a berth in the semifinals. The highest-ranked Indian female shuttler took 55 minutes to overcome a stern challenge presented by the tournament’s top seed.

Sindhu’s triumph is set to boost her self-belief to a major extent as she has been struggling to keep her winning momentum going. Her match against Han Yue was the second meeting between the two shuttlers in a span of little over a month.

It was Yue who had ended Sindhu’s run at the Asian Badminton Championships in Ningbo, China on April 11 in a three-game thriller 18-21, 21-13, 17-21.

Notably, the Rio Olympics silver medallist has been battling poor form for a very long time and it has seen her drop out of the top-10 ranked female shuttlers in the world. 

Sindhu is currently ranked 15th and is desperately trying to regain her self-confidence in a bid to give her the best possible chance of contesting for the gold medal at the forthcoming Paris Olympics.

Sindhu started the clash on a dominating note and gained a six-point lead at the mid-game interval during the first game. She wrapped up the first game 21-13 to leave the Chinese shuttler rattled.

However, the top seed of the competition came back fighting to take the second game 21-14. The second game left Sindhu with a lot of thinking to do and she decided to take her game a notch higher in the decider.

In a display of sheer dominance, Sindhu, 28, raced to an eight-point lead at the mid-game interval and Yue couldn’t recover from that. Sindhu will face the winner of the quarterfinal clash between Indonesia’s Putri Kusuma Wardani and Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan in the semis.