Guangzhou: India had a mixed day at the World Badminton Championships in Guangzhou, China on Friday as Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap lost their respective quarter-final matches, whereas PV Sindhu created history by reaching the semi-final of the event with her smashing performance against local favourite Shixian Wang. She became the first Indian women singles player and the only Indian after Prakash Padukone to have assured the country of a medal in the mega event, and that too in her maiden appearance.
Sindhu, an 18-year-old from Hyderabad, who was playing in her maiden World Championship, took just 55 minutes to decide the fate of this match. She defeated the seventh seeded Chinese 21-18, 21-17. It was a close tussle between the two, but Sindhu's clean hits were too hot to handle for the local favourite. Brilliant smashes from the Indian were the highlight of this stunning encounter and Sindhu scored as much as 19 of them to overpower Wang.
With this win, she advances into the semi-finals of the tournament where she will go head to head with Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon. Intanon defeated Spaniard Carolina Marin 21-18, 20-22, 21-15 in the quarters. Intanon had beaten Sindhu 12-21, 6-21 in the Indian Open earlier this year.
Meanwhile in the other competition in the women’s singles category, Saina was shown the doors by her Korean opponent Yeon Ju Bae as she lost the match by 21-23, 9-21.
In the other tie of the day, in men’s singles category, Kashyap fought hard but ultimately went down to China's Du Pengyu 21-16, 20-22, 15-21.
