Two-time Olympic-medallist PV Sindhu survived a scare before prevailing over Korea’s Sim Yu Jin in three games to enter the quarterfinals of Malaysia Masters Super 500 badminton tournament in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) on Thursday.
World No. 15 Sindhu, a former world champion, saw off Sim 21-13, 12-21, 21-14 in a 59-minute women’s singles second-round match to register her third win over the Korean world number 34.
The 28-year-old from Hyderabad hasn’t been able to hit top form ever since returning to action following a knee injury sustained in October last year.
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Sindhu, seeded fifth, will next face top seed Han Yue in a revenge match. The Chinese had defeated her in their last meeting at the Asia badminton Championships in Ningbo last month.
Sindhu, who last won a title in 2022 Singapore Open, has an overwhelming 5-1 head-to-head record against Han, who is now ranked world number 6.
Sindhu was left to do the catching up job in the opening game as she trailed 3-7. But she fought her way back and grabbed a slender 11-10 advantage at the break. The Indian then reeled off seven points to run away with the opening game.
The second game was a tight affair as the two fought hard with Han managing to take a one-point advantage at the interval. She snatched the momentum after resumption.
The Korean was soon up 14-10 and went on to win seven of the next nine points to roar back into the contest.
Sim once again made a positive start to move to a 5-1 lead in the decider. But Sindhu clawed back at 6-6 before the Korean was up 9-8 at one stage.
The Indian then took control and zoomed to 13-9 before a five-point burst from 16-14 to seal the contest.
In other results, the mixed doubles pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy lost 9-21 15-21 to top-seeded Malaysian pair of Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei, while Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker went down 17-21, 11-21 to second-seeded Malaysians Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan in women’s doubles.
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