Star Indian shuttler PV Sindhu advanced to the women’s singles semi-finals of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 tournament with hard-fought wins against their respective opponents in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu defeated sixth seed Yi Man Zhang of China 21-16, 13-21, 22-20 in the quarterfinal match that lasted one hour and 14 minutes. World number 13 Sindhu avenged her round-of-32 loss to Zhang, ranked 18th, in the All England Open earlier this year. She had also beaten her Chinese opponent in the same tournament last year. Sindhu will face seventh seed and world number nine Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia in the Malaysia Masters semifinals on Saturday. Tunjung upset second seed Yi Zhi Wang of China in the quarterfinals 21-18, 22-20. Tunjung has been in fine form recently and Sindhu had lost to her in the Madrid Spain Masters final in straight games in April. Sindhu will, however, go into the semifinals with a 7-1 head-to-head advantage over Tunjung.
On the other hand, HS Prannoy continued his brilliant run in the Malaysia Masters tournament to reach men’s singles semi-finals. He defeated Kenta Nishimoto of Japan 25-23, 18-21, 21-13 in the quarterfinals. Prannoy will face Christian Adinata of Indonesia in the semifinals.
In the men’s singles, however, Kidambi Srikanth lost to Indonesian qualifier Christian Adinata 21-16, 16-21, 11-21 in 57 minutes in the Malaysia Masters quarterfinals to bow out of the tournament.
