Dubai World Superseries Semi-Finals: PV Sindhu storms into finals, beats Chen Yufei

In a match that lasted 59 minutes, the Rio Olympic silver medalist defeated her Chinese counterpart 21-15, 21-18 in a stadium packed with Indian fans.

Courtesy: PTI

New Delhi: Ace shuttler PV Sindhu beat China's Chen Yufei in straight games on Saturday, in the semi-final of 2017 BWF Super Series Finals at Hamdan Sports Complex, Dubai.

In a match that lasted 59 minutes, the Olympic silver medalist defeated her Chinese counterpart 21-15, 21-18 in a stadium packed with Indian fans.

Sindhu, who beat current world number two Akane Yamaguchi within 36 minutes in straight games on Friday, took some time to settle into the match against world number eight Yufei.

The Hyderabadi, who is also the world No. 3, showed true grit and courage but Yufei put in an equally good performance. In their sixth meeting, Sindhu allowed the 19-year old sensation to play short rallies with her until nerves and inexperience got the better of Chen with misplaced shots and give-away points.

The first game proved to be a perfect example of tactical intelligence from both the shuttlers, with Chen trying to take advantage of Sindhu's height by playing deceptive drop shots and Sindhu using her height to play a barrage of body smashes from the backcourt. It was all about defence versus attack, with the Indian stalwart attacking. Towards the end of the first game, Sindhu began to control the proceedings and sealed it 21-15 in 24 minutes.

The second game began in similar fashion as the first, with both the players trying to outdo each other through well-worked short rallies.

It reached 3-3 when Sindhu hit a tremendous smash that made Chen lose her footing and sent the entire crowd cheering at the audacity behind the placement of the shot, which gave Sindhu the point.

Chen kept on trying her best to make a comeback with her well-placed shots, levelling in between with the game stuck at 15-15. It was from this point that Sindhu began to dominate final proceedings, not wanting to stretch it to a third game but received stiff competition from Yufei before clinching it 21-18 within 35 minutes.

The victory gave Sindhu a 4-2 head-to-head lead over Chen Yufei.

Meanwhile, in the other semi-final, Akane Yamaguchi beat Ratchanok Intanon 17-21, 21-12, 21-19 in a match that lasted one hour and twelve minutes. Yamaguchi and Sindhu also met in their penultimate group match, with Sindhu thrashing her 21-9, 21-13.

The Olympic silver medallist has already clinched the India Open Super Series and Korea Open Super Series, besides bagging the silver at Glasgow World Championship and finishing as runners-up at Hong Kong Open last month. If she wins the final against Yamaguchi on Sunday, it will be another highlight of India's growing strength in the badminton circuit.