Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu took a giant stride towards securing a title at the Malaysia Masters after progressing to the semi-finals with a hard-fought win over top seed Han Yue of China here on Friday.
World No. 15 Sindhu recovered from a mid-game slump to outwit Han, ranked sixth, 21-13, 14-21, 21-12 in a 55-minute quarter-final battle to avenge her loss to the Chinese in their last meeting at the Asia Badminton Championships in Ningbo last month.
Sindhu, a former world champion, will now square off against either Indonesia’s Putri Kusuma Wardani or Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan.
In other results, Ashmita Chaliha’s fine run ended in the quarter finals with a 10-21, 15-21 loss to sixth seed Zhang Yi Man of China.
This was her second quarter-final appearance in a Super 500 event, having reached the last 8 in the India Open in 2022.
On Wednesday, the 24-year-old Ashmita, ranked 53rd, sizzled her way to a 21-19, 16-21, 21-12 win over world No. 10 Beiwen Zhang of the US.
Sindhu, who last won the Singapore Open in 2022, gave a good account of herself during the 55-minute match as she broke off from 3-3 in the opening game to take a 11-5 cushion at the break.
The Chinese slowly made her way to 13-16 but Sindhu reeled off the remaining five straight points to take the opening game.
Stung by the reversal, Han zoomed to a 5-0 lead after the change of sides. She continued to dominate the proceedings as Sindhu struggled.
The result was she jumped to a massive 15-2 advantage and despite some fightback from the Indian, Han comfortably took the match to the decider.
Sindhu gathered her wits in the third game to open up a massive 11-3 lead at the break, which proved decisive as Han just couldn’t bridge the gap.
On Thursday too, Sindhu had dropped a game before prevailing over South Korea’s Sim Yu Jin.
Sindhu, a former world champion, had defeated Sim 21-13, 12-21, 21-14 in a 59-minute match to register her third win over the Korean world No. 34.
The 28-year-old, who hasn’t been able to hit top form ever since returning to action following a knee injury sustained in October last year, seems to be finally regaining her touch.