Olympic silver medallist P.V. Sindhu progressed to the quarterfinals of the All England badminton championship with a hard-fought win over Thailand’s Nitchaon Jindapol, here on Thursday.
The World No. 3 Indian recovered from a mid-way slump to overcome the Thai 21-13, 13-21, 21-18 in a match which lasted 67 minutes.
Sindhu, who held a 2-1 record against Jindapol, kept the shuttle in play, pushing the latter to the corners and returning the shuttles with immaculate ease early on.
In the first game, the duo split the initial six points before Sindhu jumped to a 7-3 lead after winning a long rally. After the breather, Sindhu moved to a 15-7 lead and kept piling on the misery on the Thai who kept hitting the net and wide to bleed points.
Big lead
A body smash took Jindapol to double figures but she couldn’t go far as Sindhu grabbed a massive game point advantage with a deceptive return at 20-13. Jindapol then hit long to hand the game to the Indian.
After Jindapol anticipated better and seemed more attacking in her approach to take the second game, Sindhu looked more focused in the decider as she pumped herself with each point to move to a 3-0 lead.
Though Jindapol exploited Sindhu’s weak backhand, her unforced errors helped the Indian move to 8-5. Jindapol kept the pressure on and narrowed the lead to 7-8. Sindhu held a slender 11-9 advantage at the interval but Jindapol erased the deficit quickly.
Neck and neck
Jindapol moved to 15-12 after Sindhu erred in her cross court return. Sindhu produced an onrushing return at the back and then unleashed a couple of roaring smashes to make it 16-16.
Both missed the line next and it was 18-18. Sindhu pounced on a chance at the net to grab the lead and gained the match point when the Thai went to the net. Jindapol netted again and Sindhu sighed a relief.
Wednesday’s results: Men: Singles: K. Srikanth bt Brice Leverdez (Fra) 7-21, 21-14, 22-20; Son Wan Ho (Kor) bt Sai Praneeth 13-21, 21-15, 21-11. Doubles: Marcus Ellis & Chris Langridge (Gbr) bt Manu Attri & Sumeeth Reddy 22-20, 21-12.
Women: Singles: Sindhu bt Pornpawee Chochuwong (Tha) 20-22, 21-17, 21-9. Doubles: Misaki Matsutomo & Ayaka Takahashi (Jpn) bt Ashwini Ponnappa & Sikki Reddy 21-14, 21-13; Shiho Tanka & Koharu Yonemoto (Jpn) bt J. Meghna & Poorvisha Ram 21-14, 21-11.
Mixed doubles: Pranav Chopra & Sikki Reddy bt Marvin Emil Seidel & Linda Efler (Ger) 21-19, 21-13.