Badminton Asia Championship | Saina Nehwal advances to semis; PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth crash out

04/27/2018

It was a mixed day for the Indian shuttlers in the Badminton Asia Championship as Saina Nehwal qualified for the semi-finals while PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth lost their respective quarterfinal matches. Sindhu lost to Korean Sung Ji Hyun while Srikanth was knocked out by Lee Chong Wei.

Kidambi Srikanth who recently became the World No. 1 in the BWF Ranking went down in the Badminton Asia Championship quarter-finals against Malaysian legend Lee Chong Wei. Earlier this month, Srikanth had lost to Lee Chong in the gold-medal match at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast as well after having beaten the legendary Malaysian in finals of the team event.

The World No. 7 completely dominated the match as he beat Srikanth 21-12, 21-15 in about 32 minutes. The Malaysian was in complete control as he never allowed the 25-year-old Indian to make a comeback in the game and ended his campaign in the quarter-finals.

On the other hand, in another disappointing result for Indians, PV Sindhu lost her quarter-final match against Sung Ji Hyun of Korea and went down 21-19, 21-10. In an intense first set, Sindhu and Ji Hyun displayed some fantastic badminton skills as they were level until 16-16 before the Korean took the first game. The second game was completely dominated by the South Korean as she won 21-10 to qualify for the semi-finals.

There was some positive result for the Indians as Saina Nehwal earned a good victory in her quarter-final game against Lee Jang Mi as she won 21-15, 21-13. She was trailing in the first set, 5-7 but came back well to win it and take the lead. In the second game, the 28-year-old Indian shuttler raced off to a 5-0 lead before there was a slight fightback from the Korean. But Saina proved to be too strong as she won her game in 43 minutes and advanced to the semi-final.

She now awaits the winner of the match between top seed Tai Tzu Ying and China’s He Bingjiao for her semi-final clash.