Sindhu and Saina in Quarterfinals of Badminton World Championship
Sindhu and Saina in Quarterfinals of Badminton World Championship 2018 – Match Highlights:
- Saina won 21-16 21-19
- Sindhu defeated Sung 21-10, 21-18
- Srikanth lost 18-21, 18-21
The Indian shuttlers were in fine form at the Badminton World Championship on Thursday after all of them won their respective matches. The only disappointment for the country came in the way of World No.4 Kidambi Srikant who surprisingly lost his round of 16 clash to hurtle out of the tournament. Victories in both the women’s singles matches, men’s single and mixed-doubles match mean India are still in with a very good chance of bagging in four medals at the events.
Starting with the ladies, we take a look at Saina Nehwal’s match first. Continuing where she had left off from, Nehwal breezed through her pre-quarter match with another easy victory this tournament. The Indian has had a relatively unperturbed tournament till now after being drawn up with opponents well below her ranking and badminton skills. Such was the case yesterday as well. She dispatched Ratchanok with ease in the 47 minute encounter. While the first set was extremely one sided, going in Saina’s favour 21-16, she faced some competition in the second one after her opponent won four late consecutive points to claw back 18-17. Saina however held her nerve to take the set 21-19 and with that the match, setting up a clash with World No.2 Carolina Marin in the progress.
PV Sindhu faced South Korea’s Ji Hyun Sung who after surrendering in the first set, bounced back strongly in the second. Putting Sindhu on the line, Sung upped her game tremendously to cause all sorts of problems to India’s finest woman badminton player. Sindhu’s experience and knowledge of the game paid of eventually though with her taking the match 21-10, 21-18 to set up a last eight clash with her rival Nozomi Okuhara who she has already faced twice earlier this year.
“Really happy with the performance. It was a good match overall even though I won the first set quite easy and the second game was not easy where I was actually trailing almost like 7-2 and still I gave my best, still had hope in me that you know that the game is not over, the match is not over and each point was very important for me because even after trailing I came back and those few points were really important,” said Sindhu after her win.
In the other victories on the day for India at the badminton world championship, B Sai Praneeth beat Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus 21-13, 21-11 and Ashwini Ponnappa/Satwiksairaj Rankireddy beat 7-Shevon Jemei Lai/Goh Soon Huat 20-22, 21-14, 21-6 in the mixed doubles.
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