PV Sindhu gets an opportunity to exact revenge for her French Open defeat to China's World No. 7 He Bingjiao as the quarter-final action gets underway at the Fuzhou China Open 2018 in Fuzhou, China on Friday. The third seed, who won this tournament in 2016, lost to the Chinese in the exact same stage in her very last tournament.
Bingjiao has the advantage in this encounter, having won both their clashes this year that has allowed her to build a 7-5 lead in their head-to-head meetings. The last time that Sindhu beat her was at the 2017 World Superseries Finals, but even then she had to work hard for three games before managing to dispatch the Chinese.
Bingjiao has traditionally been one player who has troubled Sindhu, and if the Indian can't keep her errors at bay on Friday, it will be yet another loss for her.
Just like Sindhu, Srikanth too gets a chance to beat a player who has been a thorn to him in the recent past. The Chinese Taipei ace, currently at a career-high No. 3, won their last two matches and has a 2-1 edge over the Indian. The last time Srikanth was able to get the better of him was way back in 2014.
This year, Chou Tien Chen has performed far more consistently than the Guntur-born ace and that is evident from his rise in the world rankings. While Srikanth has no title to show for in 2018, Chou has won three titles and reached the finals of the Asian Games, the Denmark Open, and the India Open.
It would be interesting to see if Srikanth's improved results in the past few weeks can give him enough confidence to turn the tables on a player as solid as Chou.
Here’s the complete schedule of Indian contingent on November 9, 2018:
Women's singles
(3) PV Sindhu vs (8) He Bingjiao at approx 2:40 pm local time/12:10 pm IST
Men's singles
(5) Kidambi Srikanth vs (4) Chou Tien Chen at approx 4 pm local time/1:30 pm IST
Men's doubles
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty vs Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan not before 7 pm local time/4:30 pm IST
Here's everything you need to know about how to follow the Fuzhou China Open 2018:
Tournament name: Fuzhou China Open 2018
Location: Fuzhou, China
Category: Super 750
Date: Friday, November 9, 2018
Round: Quarter-finals
Broadcast: Live telecast on Star Sports 2 and Star Sports 2 HD from 11:30 am IST
Livestream: Hotstar.com
Live updates: On Sportskeeda