Canada Open Super 500: PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen advance to semifinals

Commonwealth Games champions PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen notched up contrasting wins to advance to the semifinals

Calgary: Commonwealth Games champions PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen notched up contrasting wins to advance to the semifinals of the Canada Open Super 500 badminton tournament here.

Sindhu, a double Olympic medallist, stamped her authority over Fang Jie to register her first victory in four meetings against her opponent with a dominating 21-13, 21-7 margin in the women’s singles quarterfinals late on Friday night.

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Later, Sen staved off a spirited fight from German qualifier Julien Carraggi 21-8, 17-21, 21-10 in the men’s singles quarterfinal. Sindhu will now face world number one Japan’s Yamaguchi and Sen is pitted against fourth seeded Japanese Kenta Nishimoto.

The 28-year-old from Hyderabad has a favourable 14-10 head-to-head record against the top seeded Japanese, who had beaten the Indian in their last meeting at Singapore Open this year. Sen, on the other hand, has a 1-1 record against Nishimoto, having last played him at the 2022 Japan Open. Sindhu looked more alert as she zoomed to a 5-1 lead early on. Her trademark smashes and drops troubled Fang Jie, who also committed lot of unforced errors. The Indian entered the break with a 11-6 lead. Sindhu was quick on her feet and covered the court well, returning everything thrown at her with ease.

With the shuttle going to net a few times, Fang Jie reduced the deficit to 10-14 and then 12-16 but Sindhu finished things with two whipping smashes. The second game started on an even keel with Fang Jie managing a slender 5-3 lead at one stage but Sindhu quickly turned things around, reaching the interval at 11-5 with her opponent finding the net.

It was mostly a one-way traffic as Sindhu made her opponent work hard, dominating the rallies to keep moving ahead. Looking for precision, the Chinese missed the lines and soon handed over the match to the Indian with two net errors.