The world no.7 PV Sindhu has stormed into the quarterfinals of the BWF World Championships with a convincing win in a match that lasted just 48 minutes. The defending champion was in no mood to show any mercy to her opponent with a straight-game win over Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand. She ran out the winner by 21-14, 21-18 to set up a quarter-final tie against Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei.
Sindhu who is seeded sixth in the tournament has now extended her head-to-head record with Chochuwong to 5-3. It was the third time in the calendar year that the two opponents faced each other as Sindhu ended up losing on both occasions. This time though, the double Olympic-medalist was up for the challenge as she got the better of Chochuwong on the third time of asking.
Sindhu was always on the front foot right from the word go with an early 5-1 lead which was later raised to 10-9, 15-10 and finally to 19-11 to grab hold of the first game. It wasn’t a different story in the second game, despite resilience from Chochuwong, the Indian no.1 took a 3-0 lead and went into the change of ends at 11-6. Her Thai opponent was involved in some tight rallies in the second game but Sindhu’s strong defense across the court prevailed her to advance into the quarter-finals.
There was also a heart in the mouth moment for Sindhu as at one stage it was 18-15 in the second game. The rallies got more crucial as the former Olympic-medalist won a crucial point to make it 20-18 to earn a match point. The 26-year-old picked her ‘A’ game at a crucial point to win the second game and ultimately advance to the quarters.
The Indian star was given a bye in the opening round while she defeated Slovakia's Martina Repiska 21-7 21-9. Sindhu is yet to drop a game in the tournament as a big challenge awaits her in the next round in the form of Tai Tzu Ying. The Chinese Taipei star beat Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland 21-10 19-21 21-11 to advance to the quarters.
