Two-time defending champion P V Sindhu took another step towards retaining her women's singles title by reaching the quarterfinals of the USD 120,000 Macau Open Grand Prix Gold here today.
Two-time bronze medallist at World Championship, Sindhu, seeded fifth, defeated Indonesia's Lindaweni Fanetri 21-17 21-18 in a women's singles match that lasted 46 minutes. The World No. 12 will next take on China's Chen Yufei.
In the men's singles, seventh seed H S Prannoy saw off China's Qiao Bin 12-21 21-11 21-19 in a gruelling match that lasted an hour and five minutes. He will next play 16th seed Ihsan Maulana Mustofa of Indonesia.
B Sai Praneeth, seeded 15th, defeated Indonesia's Andre Kurniawan Tedjono 21-15 21-6 in another match and will face Malaysia's Goh Soon Huat at the Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion Macau tomorrow.
Prannoy showed tremendous tenacity as he bounced back from a game down to win the match.
Qiao dominated the opening game, jumping to 11-3 from 4-3 and continuing his rampaging run after the interval as he moved in giant steps to pocket the game without much ado.
Jolted by the first game loss, Prannoy scripted a brilliant turnover in the second game where he led from the start and slowly crafted his return to the match by closing the second game.
He continued his domination early on in the decider, opening up a 6-0 lead but Qiao fought back to take a slender 11-10 advantage at the break. The Chinese inched ahead to a 14-12 lead but Prannoy never gave up and moved and neck and neck before breaking off at 17-17 to shut the door on Qiao.
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The experienced Jorgensen soon broke off and eked out a 17-14 lead first and then grabbed a 20-17 lead.
Sameer then showed his class as he engaged in some brilliant rallies and pushed the Dane into committing too many unforced errors to help the Indian save three game points and take a 21-20 lead.
With pressure mounting, it was all about holding one's nerves and Sameer faltered twice as he hit wide to hand back the lead to Dane.
But in the end, the young Indian kept his calm to prevail in the 24-minute game after the Dane failed to return a shot and hit the net. An overwhelmed Sameer sunk down on his knees in celebration.
It's a big win for Sameer, whose career has been plagued by a series of injuries. In 2012, he had injured his back and after recovering, he again hurt his back in 2013. Despite putting all the hard work to recover, he was laid low as had an Appendicitis in 2014.
Sameer has a 2-1 record against Ng Ka Long, having beaten him the last time at Asia Youth U-19 Championship in 2012.
"I didn't think too much before the match. I tried to make him run around the court. I didn't expect to do so well. My idol is Lin Dan, he's a legend," Sameer said.
"I haven't thought of tomorrow's final. I called my coach (Gopi) yesterday and he told me to just keep calm. I didn't talk to any of my teammates who had beaten Jorgensen earlier. I was under pressure at the end of the second game and I was prepared for a third," he added.
In women's singles, Sindhu, however, hardly broke any sweat as she defeated beat Cheung, an opponent she had beaten twice in the past at the 2014 Badminton Asia Championships and 2013 Malaysia Grand Prix Gold.
After the Hong Kong shuttler took a slender 4-2 lead early on, Sindhu slowly clawed back and broke off at 8-8 to never allow Cheung to threaten her chances. Eventually from a 16-14 lead, Sindhu reeled off five points to pocket the first game.
In the second, the Indian managed a 7-3 lead and even though Cheung clawed back immediately, Sindhu surged to a 10-7 advantage and then slowly crafted her way to shut the doors on her World No. 26 opponent.
Sindhu will have to be little cautious against Tai Tzu, who holds a 4-3 head-to-head record against the Indian. Sindhu will look back at her Olympic performance when she had beaten the Taiwan girl on August 15 at Rio.
"I finished it easily in two games. I was prepared for everything. I was ready from the first point. She had good support from the home crowd. Even though I led, I didn't take it easy," Sindhu said.
"Happy about two finals in two weeks. Hopefully will give my best, let's see if there will be a repeat of last week's result."
On Sameer's stunning win, Sindhu said: "I was following it. He was down and he took it out. Huge achievement for him beating top player Jan and entering a final for the first time. Two Indians tomorrow, so I hope it will be a good day.
