P.V Sindhu progresses to semi-finals at Singapore Open, Saina Nehwal misses out after losing a close-game

The Indian badminton stars had a forgettable day at the Singapore Open 2022 as only P.V Sindhu could manage to progress ahead to the semi-finals of the event. On the other hand, Saina Nehwal failed to progress ahead of the quarter-finals as she lost three games against Aya Ohori of Japan. Meanwhile, Men’s single-player HS Prannoy met the same fate as Nehwal.

After having a slow start, Sindhu came from behind to China’s Han Yue in the quarter-finals. The Olympic bronze medalist won 17-21, 21-11, 21-19 to seal a place in the semi-final against Japan’s Saena Kawakami, who beat Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong on her to the semis.

Sindhu took some time to get going in the match as she was trailing 11-14 in the first game. She dramatically turned things around in her favour in the second game as she brought her ‘A game’ to the table. At 14-11, Sindhu went on to take the next seven points to pocket the game.

In the decider match, Han Yue, who had defeated Ashmita Chaliha in the second round, seemed to be running away with the game as she raced to a 14-9 lead. But the Indian star made a terrific come back into the match and sealed a spot in the semis. But, it was a heart-break for the former world no.1 Nehwal, who came close to making it to the semis, in the match against Japan's Aya Ohori. In the decider, Nehwal failed to take advantage of the two match points and lost 13-21, 21-15, 20-22 in a nail-biting match.

In men's singles, HS Prannoy won the first game against Japan's Kodai Naraoka but eventually lost 21-12, 14-21, 18-21. The men's doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila went down fighting against Indonesian second seeds Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 21-10, 18-21, 17-21.

India will be having high hopes of a medal from Sindhu who’s the only woman athlete from India to win two Olympic medals. She won a silver medal in the 2016 edition at Rio and a bronze in the last year’s edition.