P V Sindhu kept India's hopes alive in women's singles by entering the semifinals of the India Open Super Series badminton tournament with a straight games win over Yui Hashimoto of Japan, here today.
The 17-year-old Sindhu, who had beaten former World No.1 Shixian Wang of China at the Badminton Asia Championships in Taipei last week, continued her good form to get the better of Hashimoto 21-16 21-16 in 47 minutes.
Hashimoto, who defeated Saina Nehwal yesterday, looked no match for Sindhu.
In the opening game, Sindhu started off with a bang, quickly opening up a 11-4 lead and in no time she extended it to 19-9. But just when things seemed to be in total control of the Indian, Hashimoto raised her game.
She went on to win nine points on the trot, mainly taking advantage of unforced errors from Sindhu, to reduce the gap to 16-19.
The Hyderabadi, who had the cushion of a ten-point lead, showed a lot of patience and clinched the next two points to seal off the first game, 21-16.
The second game was a neck-and-neck battle with none of the players sparing an inch. There was never a difference of more than three points between them and that continued till 14-14 before Sindhu won another three straight points to take it to 17-14.
The game involved long rallies that Sindhu managed to win by hitting powerful smashes.
Although the Japanese earned a couple of more points but in the end, Sindhu comfortably prevailed over her opponent.
"My opponent made mistakes and that made the difference," said Sindhu after the match.
Sindhu will next take on World No. 6 Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, who earlier on the day defeated India's Arundhati Pantawane in another women's singles match.
The Indian went down fighting to third seeded Intanon 14-21 21-7 21-16 in 52 minutes.
