Bali, Nov 26 (UNI) India's two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and star pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty stormed into the Indonesia Open Super 1000 semifinals here on Friday.
The third-seeded Sindhu had to come back from a game down to defeat Sim Yujin of South Korea by 14-21, 21-19, 21-14 in the women's singles match that lasted just over an hour. The Indian will now take on second seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the semifinals.
Sindhu started off well, extending the lead to 7-1 against Yujin. However, the South Korean tilted the table in her favour as she won six straight points to not only bridge the gap but take a narrow lead of 11-10. From there on, Yujin went on to seal the first game.
The second game, too, looked in Yujin's favour but Sindhu upped her game in the tightly-contested affair and took it to the decider. Sindhu's experience came in handy and the Indian held her nerves to win the third game as well as the match.
In men's doubles event, the Indian duo Rankireddy and Shetty got the better of Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin of Malaysia in straight games by 21-19, 21-19 in a match that lasted for 43 minutes. Rankireddy and Shetty will meet Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia in the semifinals.
However, for B Sai Praneeth the tournament came to an end as he was handed a 12-21, 8-21 defeat by the Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the men's singles quarterfinals event.
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