Badminton | All England Open 2021: PV Sindhu Beats Akane Yamaguchi to Enter Women’s Singles Semifinal

Reigning world badminton champion PV Sindhu rallied to beat Japanese fireball, Akane Yamaguchi, in a thrilling quarterfinal of All England Open Badminton Championships on Friday. With this win, the Indian ace has booked herself a spot in the semifinal of Super 1000 tournament in Birmingham. Leading one of the greatest comebacks after being one game down, Sindhu took an hour and 16 minutes to notch up a hard-fought 16-21, 21-16, 21-19 win over the Japanese third seed. Fifth-seeded Sindhu will now face sixth-seed Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand in the last four clash of the competition on Saturday.

With the breathtaking win, the 25-year-old Sindhu ended a three-match losing streak against Yamaguchi, against whom she now holds an 11-7 head-to-head record. Sindhu will start as favourite against Pornpawee Chochuwong, she holds a 4-1 head-to-head record against her Thai opponent. In their last meeting which came at the World Tour Finals earlier this year, Sindhu managed a comfortable straight-game victory.

In other women’s singles quarterfinal match, Pornpawee beat unseeded Beiwen Zhang of the USA 7-21, 21-13, 21-9 in 38 minutes.

Also on Friday, India’s Lakshya Sen crashed out in the quarterfinals, losing to Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands 17-21, 21-16, 17-21. The match, which lasted 55 minutes, saw the end of the Indian challenge in men’s singles.

The emotion of reaching the semi-finals 😍#YAE2021 pic.twitter.com/pFLQz8zsRW

— 🏆 Yonex All England Badminton Championships 🏆 (@YonexAllEngland) March 19, 2021

Caljouw, who had beaten Sen once before, won the first set 21-17 in 17 minutes. He was leading 11-8 at one point and maintained it to go 1-0 up. The 19-year-old Sen then bounced back in the second game, opening up a lead of 11-6 and later sealing the second game 21-16 to stay alive in the contest.

World No. 36 Caljouw, however, won the last game 21-17 to seal the clash.

Sen had progressed to the men’s singles quarter-finals on Thursday after beating France’s Thomas Rouxel 21-18, 21-17 in 53 minutes.

Earlier, Indian women’s doubles pair Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy went down to the Netherlands’ Selena Piek and Cheryl Seinen in straight sets in the quarter-finals. Ashwini and Sikki lost 22-24, 12-21 in 39 minutes on Friday.

Ashwini and Sikki had beaten sixth seeds Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria 21-17, 21-10 in the Round of 16.