New Delhi: India has seen contrasting fortunes in the Singles category of the Dubai World Superseries Finals, from its two ace shuttlers.


COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

PV Sindhu who has had somewhat of an up-and-down season this year, has blitzed past her opponents in this season-ending tournament with three consecutive victories, and has set herself up for a spot in the semifinals. Meanwhile, in a juxtaposed fashion, Kidambi Srikanth, who had won four Superseries titles this year, and looked unbeatable, crashed out of this tournament with three straight losses in the group stage.


The champion shuttler from Hyderabad will be facing China's 19-year old sensation Chen Yufei, on Saturday.


(Also read: BWF World Superseries Finals: Imperious PV Sindhu registers third straight win, meets Chen Yufei in semis)


Sindhu and Yufei have already faced each other five times, with Sindhu on top with a 3-2 head-to-head record. They last faced each other in this year's French Open, where Sindhu thrashed her in straight games, 21-14, 21-14.


Chen Yufei is a right-handed player, and is currently world number eight. She is also the junior World and Asian champion, and has already beaten big names like Sindhu and Yamaguchi this year. While Sindhu is also right-handed and is currently world number three.


The game depends on how Sindhu takes on Chen from the very beginning, with inexperience and nerves playing a part her opponent's game. Chen is fast and plays a lot of deception shots, which can make Sindhu play closer to the net, due to a heavy use of drop shots in the Chinese's ammunition. Sindhu's has to use her backcourt a lot to overpower Chen, and use her body smash to hit through her opponent's body.


Fatigue will play a factor, as it took Chen three sets to finish her previous game against Thailand's Intanon, while Sindhu thrashed her opponent Yamaguchi in two straight sets. Sindhu is obviously the fresher player going into this crunch match, and will have a upper hand if the match goes into the third game.


When and where is the Dubai World Superseries semi-finals taking place?


The Dubai World Superseries semi-finals is taking place on 16th December, in Dubai's Hamdan Sports Complex. The match will not start before 7 pm local time, 8:30 pm IST.


How to watch the Dubai World Superseries semi-finals?


The Dubai World Superseries semi-finals will be shown at Star Sports 2 and Star Sports 2 HD. The matches will also be live streamed at Hotstar.com.