Two-time Olympic medalist Indian shuttler PV Sindhu entered the women’s singles semi-finals of the Badminton Asia Championships (BAC) with a thrilling win over China’s Hi Bing Xiao on Friday. With this win, Sindhu has ensured herself a medal in this continental championship. This tournament is being played after a gap of two years due to the COVID-19 epidemic.
In another match of the day, Malaysia’s fifth seeded pair of Aaron Chia and Soh Woi Yik defeated Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty 12-21 21-14 21-16 in the men’s doubles match. Fourth seed PV Sindhu, who won the bronze medal at the 2014 Gimcheon stage, defeated fifth seed China 21-9 13-21 21-19 in a quarterfinal that lasted one hour and 16 minutes.
The 26-year-old from Hyderabad, who has won two Super 300 titles at the Syed Modi International and the Swiss Open, will now face top seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the semi-finals. World No. 7 Sindhu had a match winning record of 7-9 against Bing Xiao, whom she has previously beaten in her last two encounters.
Sindhu had defeated Bing Xiao to win a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics and the top Indian stunned again in a thrilling final stage win over the pressure. Former world champion PV Sindhu had made her intentions clear from the start as she took an 11-2 lead in the first game without losing any time and then continued to dominate the match to go 1-0 up.
However, Bing Xiao made an impressive comeback in the second game to extend a 6-4 lead to 11-10. After the break, the Chinese player scored five consecutive points to take a 19-12 lead to level the match 1-1. The two players were tied 2-2 in the decider, but Sindhu collected points from her cross-court smash to lead 11-5 at the break. However, Bing Xiao bounced back after the break to cut Sindhu’s lead. Sindhu was at one point leading 15-9 but lost her momentum to reach 16-15. Sindhu was then leading 18-16 and won the match with four match points.