World badminton championships: PV Sindhu stuns World No. 3 Li Xuerui, Jwala-Ashwini, Saina advance

New Delhi: India's rising badminton star PV Sindhu stunned Olympic champion Li Xuerui of China on Thursday to enter the world championship quarter-final in Jakarta.

PV Sindhu beat Li Xuerui in the decider to claim a score of 21-17, 14-21, 21-16.

Moments later the tournament's second seed Saina Nehwal beat Japan's 14th seed Sayaka Takahashi 21-18, 21-14 in straight sets to enter quarters.

Meanwhile in the women's doubles the pair of Ashwini Ponappa and Jwala Gutta beat eighth seeds R Kakiiwa/ M Maeda of Japan to enter quarters. The Indian duo beat the Japanese pair 21-15, 21-19.

Sindhu will next take on eighth seeded Sung Ji-hyun of South Korea. A bronze medal is least assured if she manages to beat Sung in last eight.

The World No. 13 Indian, who had spent most of the time this season nursing an injury and struggling for form, today gave a glimpse of her previous self.

Sindhu made her intentions clear from the very beginning as she opened with a 5-1 lead in the first game and simply surged ahead, never letting her higher ranked opponent catch her.

The closest the Chinese came was at 16-17 before Sindhu won three points on the trot to make it 20-16 and eventually close the opening game 21-17.

Xuerui, however, came back strongly in the second game, using all her experience as she dominated from the very first point to steal the game 21-14 and take it to the decider.

In the third game, after breaking away from tied 3-3, Sindhu ran away with a 11-6 lead at the break. But the Chinese girl came back to the game at 13-13.

At 14-14, Sindhu managed to win four successive points to once again open up a 18-14 lead. Thereafter she just tightened the noose, not letting the advantage slip and sealed the issue rather comfortably in the end.

With Agency inputs...