PV Sindhu wins semi-final to stage clash against Nozomi Okuhara

Indian player PV Sindhu returned Saturday from a match against Indonesian Gregoria Mariska Tunjung for the final of the 2018 Thailand Open. Sindhu outperformed Tunjung 23-21 16-21 21 -9 in his semi-final clash and will face Nozomi Okuhara of Japan on Sunday. After winning the first match 23-21, Sindhu lost some concentration in the second game losing 16-21. She fought hard in the final match and finally beat her Indonesian opponent 21-9 to clinch one last place. In the quarter-finals, Sindhu had pbaded his Malaysian rival Soniia Cheah

Sindhu defeated Cheah 21-17 21-13 in consecutive games in the quarter-finals. Soniia defeated Sindhu in their last meeting in 2011 at the Asian Under-19 Junior Championships. With this victory, Sindhu avenged his 2011 loss to Cheah. Incidentally, Sindhu also remains the only Indian representative of the tournament after HS Prannoy, Parupalli Kashyap and Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy of the men's doubles have lost in the round of 16. Sindhu, the 2016 Olympic silver medalist Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong 21-16, 21-14 in his pre-quarterfinal clash

Before the pre-quarter match of Sindhu, all the competitors of India lost one by one. Mixed doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa suffered a slight loss to Japan's Yuki Kaneko and Mayu Matsumoto, who took just 29 minutes to win 21-11, 21-16. Then, the fourth-seeded Prannoy lost to Indonesian qualifier Sony Dwi Kuncoro in 18-21, 14-21 in 35 minutes, while the 2012 Olympian Kashyap lost the fight against Japanese's Kanta Tsuneyama. Japan won 21-18, 18-21, 21-19 in an hour and eight minutes. The Manu-Sumeeth pair of singles lost to Japan's Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe 24-22, 13-21, 19-21 in one hour and six minutes

(With IANS Inputs)