BWF World Championship | PV Sindhu assures India a silver ; Lin Dan dismantles Son Wan-Ho to cruise into seventh final

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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PV Sindhu breezed past ninth seed Chen Yufei of China 21-13, 21-10 to cruise into the finals of the BWF World Championships, in Glasgow, for the first time in her career. Meanwhile, Lin Dan outclassed Son Wan-Ho in straight sets of 21-17, 21-14 to set up a final clash against Viktor Axelsen.

Sindhu was at her best once again in the finals of the BWF World Championships and dispatched Chen Yufei without any troubles to seal a berth in the final of the tournament for the first time. Day 6 in Glasgow started on a bad note for the Indian fans as Saina Nehwal was outplayed by Nozomi Okuhara in the semi-finals despite a strong start from the Hyderabad shuttler ending the hopes of an all-India final.

The hopes of the Indian fans were then relying on PV Sindhu who was the last of Indian players in the competition. Sindhu started positively taking the first point of the match but Yufei raced ahead to a 3-2 lead in a matter of minutes. Both the players denied each other giving an inch and the match continued to remain in the balance. Yufei finally raced ahead to a 7-4 lead to take a commanding position in the game. 

However, Sindhu clawed back her way in the game and leveled the game 7-7 before taking an 11-8 lead at the break. From then on, Sindhu cruised did not commit any errors and sealed the first game 21-13 in her favour. 

The 22-year old Indian carried the same momentum in the second game and raced off to an 8-0 lead to put Yufei in a spot of bother. Yufei finally broke the deadlock before the break but trailed 11-1 at the interval. Yufei's efforts came too late and Sindhu till then was in a dominating position in the match with the scoreboard reading 18-9 in her favour. Sindhu soon scored the winning shot and booked a place for her very first final at the World Championships.

Meanwhile, Lin Dan cruised into record seventh final of his career and breezed past top seed Son Wan-Ho in the semi-finals of the tournament. The 33-year old Chinese outclassed the World No. 1 in straight sets of 21-17, 21-14. The Chinese was trailing 16-15 to the 29-year old Korean but a series of five straight points helped him seal the game coming from behind. Dan, then, pressed his midway advantage to clinch the game and set up a final clash against Viktor Axelsen.

In the other semi-final, Danish player Viktor Axelsen beat World No. 8 Chen Long 21-9, 21-10 to cruise into the final in a mere 39 minutes. Long was the favourite to win the match owing to his title victories in 2014, 2015 and Rio Olympics gold but failed to recreate a winning performance against Axelsen.

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