Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist PV Sindhu pulled off a hard-fought win in a thrilling contest against China's He Bing Jiao to storm into the women's singles semi-finals of the Badminton Asia Championships on Friday (April 29).
Sindhu has assured herself of a medal in the continental championships with this victory, which is making a return after a gap of two years due to Covid-19 pandemic.
The fourth-seeded Sindhu, who had claimed a bronze in the 2014 Gimcheon edition, got the better of the fifth seeded Chinese 21-9, 13-21, 21-19 in a quarterfinal match that lasted an hour and 16 minutes.
World number 7 Sindhu came into the match with a 7-9 head-to-head record against Bing Jiao, whom she has beaten twice in the last two meetings. Sindhu galloped to 11-2 lead in no time and then kept things under her firm grip to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
Bing Jiao came back strongly after the change of sides, moving to 6-4 lead before managing a slender 11-10 advantage. After the break, the Chinese reeled off five points on the trot to grab a 19-12 lead to eventually roar back into the contest.
In the decider, it was 2-2 early on but Sindhu unleashed her cross-court smashes to gather points, moving to a massive 11-5 lead going into the final change of ends. Bing Jiao, however, scripted a recovery after the interval to narrow down the deficit to 15-16 as Sindhu let the momentum slip despite being 15-9 up at one stage.
It was 18-16 next with Sindhu's slice going to the net. The Indian then unleashed a body smash before grabbing four match points with Bing Jiao erring on the backcourt. The Chinese saved three match points before Sindhu prevailed.
Earlier on Thursday, star Indian shuttler Sindhu advanced to the quarterfinals of after beating lowly-ranked Yue Yann Jaslyn Hooi of Singapore in straight games. Also, Indian men's doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also made it to the quarterfinals but it was curtains for London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal.
