Double Olympic medalist PV Sindhu advanced to the women’s singles quarterfinals with a come-from-behind win against world No.7 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia on Thursday at the Denmark Open Super 750 badminton tournament in Copenhagen. Sindhu, a former world champion who reached the semifinals of the Arctic Open last week, delivered a gutsy performance to overcome Tunjung 18-21, 21-15, 21-13 in a second-round encounter that lasted for 71 minutes. The 28-year-old Indian shuttler will next face Thai player Supanida Katethong in today’s (October 20) quarter-final at 4:10 p.m.
Katethong defeated young Indian shuttler Aakarshi Kashyap in straight games 21-18, 21-8. Kashyap started well in her last-16 match, even leading for most of the first game before the Thai leveled at 15-15. The 22-year-old Indian edged ahead again, 18-16, but Katethong won the first game with five points in a row. Kashyap’s collapse came with the switch of sides, as she seemed a pale ghost of herself from the first game, conceding the match in just 36 minutes.
Sindhu has struggled this season with poor form, having returned from the Hangzhou Asian Games without a medal, and things appeared gloomy for the Indian after falling behind 6-12 and losing the first game against the Indonesian. In the second game, however, she responded with a vengeance, blazing her way to a 13-4 lead in a dominant run of play.
Soon after, the Indonesian scored eight straight points to tie the game at 14-14, but Sindhu took the lead with two flick serves, grabbing six game points when Tunjung went long. Sindhu blew one before firing a perfect lift near the baseline to force a decider. The third game ended 3-3 after some early blows. Sindhu defeated a serve with a straight smash but then ran wide at the net, letting the advantage to slip away.
Sindhu was put under strain by a sequence of forehand cross shots as she continued to make mistakes. Sindhu was quickly losing 5-9. But the Indian was back on equal footing after extracting blunders from her opponent. Tunjung had a one-point lead after two precise returns on her opponent’s forehand, but Sindhu came back to tie the match at 13-13 after Tunjung went long again.
As Sindhu surged ahead 18-13 in the flash of an eye, the young Indonesian disintegrated as she committed too many errors on the backline and at the net. Sindhu secured the match with a diving save after her opponent pushed the shuttle to the net after a reverse drop gave her seven match points.
