PV Sindhu stuns second seed Wang Yihan, enters quarters at World Championships

In a major upset at the Badminton World Championship, rising Indian shuttler PV Sindhu stunned world no. 1 Wang Yihan of China in straight sets 21-18, 23-21 and reached the quarters.

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: In a major upset at the Badminton World Championship, rising Indian shuttler PV Sindhu stunned world number 2 Wang Yihan of China in straight sets 21-18, 23-21 on Thursday and reached the quarters. Sindhu, ranked 12th, took 55 minutes to send her world number five and London Olympics silver medallist opponent packing by winning the third round match in straight games at the Tianhe Indoor Stadium. Sindhu won 21-18 23-21 to register the biggest upset of the tournament so far. Sindhu had a neck-and-neck tussle with her more fancied opponent, seeded second in the tournament, till 8-8 before the Indian surged ahead to open a 12-9 lead. But the higher-ranked Chinese was not the one to give it up so easily and it was again a closely-contested affair till 16-16. But thereafter Sindhu, seeded 10th, won two consecutive points, which she followed up by widening the margin to eventually win the first game 21-18. It is a massive win for the 18-year-old, as Wang Yihan was also the defending champion. It was a good day for India in the tournament, as earlier Parupalli Kashyap also entered the quarterfinals with 21-13 21-16 win over sixth-seeded Hu Yun of Hong Kong. Kashyap hit 16 clear winners as compared to just nine by his opponent from Hong Kong. Yun Hu completely failed to live up to the expectations and was far from his best today. Hu, looking totally off-colour, let the Indian dominate throughout the match. Kashyap took an upper hand by opening up a 14-7 lead in the first game itself, before wrapping it up 21-13. The second game also saw Hu suffering a similar fate as Kashyap once again made it 14-7. But Hu pocketed four consecutive points to reduce the gap to 11-14 and then levelled 15-15 before running out steam to hand Kashyap a comfortable victory in the end. Kashyap will meet world number three Pengyu Du in the last eight stage. Meanwhile, ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal rallied from a game down to beat Thailand`s Porntip Buranaprasertsuk and enter the quarterfinals of the BWF World Badminton Championships here. Saina, seeded third in the event, beat 15th seed Buranaprasertsuk 18-21 21-16 21-14 in a clash which lasted 52 minutes. With this win, Saina also kept her all-win record against Buranaprasertsuk intact, having beaten her in their five previous encounters before today. Saina`s most recent win against Buranaprasertsuk came last year during the Thailand Open. With PTI inputs