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PV Sindhu won her third match of the group stages to qualify for the semi-finals of the BWF World Tour Finals 2018 in Guangzhou, China on Friday. The 2017 runner-up demolished World No. 12 Beiwen Zhang 21-9, 21-15 in just 35 minutes.
Earlier, the World No. 6 had upset the top two-ranked shuttlers, Tai Tzu Ying and Akane Yamaguchi.
With this win, Sindhu has confirmed her place in the semi-finals of the season-ender for the third year running. Last year she lost the final to Yamaguchi in three gruelling games.
Along with Sindhu, the defending champion Yamaguchi has advanced from Group A after the World No. 1 Tai retired in her duel with Yamaguchi, while trailing the Japanese 17-21, 12-11.
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From Group B, 2015 winner Nozomi Okuhara and former world champion Ratchanok Intanon are the ones looking to qualify. But who meets whom in the last-four stage will only be decided by a draw that will be done on completion of the group play.
Zhang has beaten Sindhu three times in six earlier meetings, one of which was a famous win in the final of the India Open this year. However, she could not provide much resistance against the India No. 1 in this match.
Even though Zhang did make a fast start and raced ahead to 4-0, Sindhu pegged her back. Banking on her aggression, she wrested away the control and went up to 11-8 at the time of the mid-game interval. It was all Sindhu after the break as she added five straight points to take a 16-8 lead and wrapped up the opener immediately afterwards.
Sindhu opened up a 5-0 lead in Game 2 as well before the American started prolonging the rallies in an attempt to blunt the Sindhu attack. The tactic worked in her favour to some extent as she did come back to within one point of Sindhu at 7-8.
However, her unforced errors brought about her downfall and an alert Sindhu made it a 13-10 lead at first and then extended it to 15-12.
Zhang’s game completely collapsed after that as the Indian grabbed five consecutive points to reach match points and closed out the match on her third attempt.
Sameer consolidates his semi-final chances
BWF World Tour Finals 2018 debutant Sameer Verma made a strong statement with his 21-9, 21-18 win over World No. 17 Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand. This was Sameer’s second consecutive win at this tournament following his straight-game demolition of World No. 10 Tommy Sugiarto on Thursday.
Sameer thus strengthened his position for the semi-finals, having started his campaign with a loss to World No. 1 Kento Momota.
He still hasn’t officially qualified for the semi-finals as Sugiarto is still in contention. Sameer’s qualification will depend on the outcome of the group match between the Indonesian and Momota to be held at the end of the day.
