BWF China Open | Ā PV Sindhu breaks jinx to enter semifinals
Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu overcame her bad head-to-head record against Chinese teenager He Bingjiao to defeat her 22-20, 21-10 and enter the semifinal of the China Open today. However, the other Indian in the fray Ajay Jayaram endured a 15-21, 14-21 loss to Olympic champion Chen Long.
Going into the match, seventh seed PV Sindhu had a 2-4 head-to-head against China's He Bingjiao. The teenager, who is touted as China's next superstar, had finally broken into the top-10 this month.Ā
Sindhu, however, began the match dictating the tempo of the quarterfinal. The Olympics silver medallist took an early lead at 5-1 before Bingjiao pulled things back to make it 6-6. Sindhu then displayed some brilliant net game but Bingjiao matched Sindhu step for step as the game went from 11-11 to 14-14. Sindhu then won three straight points to take the score to 17-14 but Bingjiao quickly replied with three consecutive points of her own to make it 17-17.
However, it was the Indian who kept her calm to win the first game 22-20 after the scores were tied at 20-20.
The second game also started in a similar fashion with the scoreline reading 2-2, but Bingjiao seemed to have run out of steam after the gruelling first game. The World No. 10 lost six consecutive points allowing Sindhu to make it 12-4 and then 17-9. The 21-year old quickly wrapped up things by winning four consecutive points to take the second game and match at 21-10.
In the men's side, it was always going to be difficult for Ajay Jayaram to register a win over Olympic champion and second seed Chen Long. But the Indian started in a positive manner by leading the first game 3-1 and ensured he was not far behind when Chen led by three points at 9-6. But the Chinese was aggressive in his approach and ran away with the game to reach 17-12.
Although Jayaram won three consecutive points to make it 17-15, Chen took the first game winning four consecutive points to make it 21-15.
Chen upped his game in the second game leading at 5-3 and making it 8-4 in quick time. The Indian fell further behind with his opponent reaching 15-10 and then 18-13. Chen soon wrapped up the game with seven match points to spare at 21-14.
