PV Sindhu beats Okuhara in straight sets to enter World Championship semis

Pic courtesy: IANS

Nanjing, China: Indian shuttler P V Sindhu on Friday beat Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in straight games to cruise into the semifinals of the World Championships.

Sindhu defeated Okuhara 21-17 21-19 in a 58-minute quarterfinal match to set up a semis clash against World No. 2 and another Japanese Akane Yamaguchi on Saturday. 

The World No. 3 Indian produced a dominant display against her World No. 6 rival as she avenged her defeat in the last edition’s summit clash when she lost to Okuhara in the final last year 19-21 22-20 20-22. 

The head-to-head record between Sindhu and Okuhara is now levelled at 6-6. This will be Sindhu's fourth medal from the World Championships as she has already won two bronze and a silver.

Meanwhile, Saina Nehwal's impressive run came to a disappointing end at the World Championships as she suffered a straight-game loss to two-time champion Carolina Marin.

Marin played a perfect game to bamboozle Saina in the opening game. The Spaniard took just 12 minutes to race away with the game after earning 14 game points when Saina failed to retrieve a shot. The Spaniard closed it with a smash from close to the net.

Saina put up a better fight in the early stages of the second game but Marin managed an 11-8 advantage at the break. The Spaniard stifled Saina with her stroke play and placement to surge ahead to take the match 21-6 21-11. 

In the men's quarterfinals, B Sai Praneeth was no match to Kento Momota of Japan as he lost 12-21 12-21 in just 39 minutes.

The mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy went down 17-21 10-21 to top seeds Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong of China in the quarters.