BWF World Superseries Finals: Imperious PV Sindhu registers third straight win, meets Chen Yufei in semis

Courtesy: PTI

New Delhi: Indian badminton ace PV Sindhu on Friday toyed with top-seeded Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the final Group A match of 2017 BWF Super Series Finals at Hamdan Sports Complex, Dubai.

Sindhu, who survived a grueling one-hour long match against He Bingjiao of China in the tournament opener on Wednesday, took just 36 minutes to beat Yamaguchi in straight games 21-9, 21-13 in front of a raucous crowd, dominated by Indians.

Her performance against the world number two was a continuation of yesterday's match against Sayaka Sato of Japan, which the 22-year-old Indian won in straight games 21-13, 21-12 to confirm a spot in the last four.

In their seventh meeting, Sindhu never allowed the diminutive but agile Japanese girl to settle. The first set was won with relative ease, in quick time which took just 13 minutes.

The 2017 China Open Super Series Premier champion put up a nice, little fightback in the second game to put life in the contest. But the Indian star was at her imperious best, and wrapped up the match in minutes in 36 minutes.

It was a repeat of last season's Group B match, which was won by the Indian in three games 21-12, 8-21, 15-21.

After today's match, their head-to-head record stands at 5-2 in the favour of the Indian.

Despite the defeat, Yamaguchi qualified for the semis, as she finished second in the group. She will play Group B winner Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand.

The win helped the Rio Olympics silver medallist keep a clean slate in the Group outings, and will meet Chinese Chen Yufei in the semi-final. The world number eight Chinese girl finished second in the Group B, behind Intanon, with two wins from three outings.

Last year, Sindhu lost to South Korean Sung Ji-hyun in the semis.

This time, Sindhu entered the season-ending tournament as the fourth-seeded player, with 68,040 points in the Destination Dubai Rankings.

Meanwhile, defending champion Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei failed to make the semis, after finishing third in the Group B despite winning two matches. The world number one lost out to Yufei in sets win-loss difference. Yufei has 5:3 as against Tzu-ying's 4:3.

In a groundbreaking year for India badminton, Sindhu became the first Indian female individual silver medallist in the Olympics, then helped the sport's profile raised with consistent performance.

Both the players went on to win multiple super series titles as India consolidated their position on the world stage.

Sindhu clinched the India Open Super Series and Korea Open Super Series, besides bagging the silver at Glasgow World Championship and finishing as runners-up at Hong Kong Open last month.