China Open: PV Sindu survives Thai scare, enters quarter-final

Indian ace badminton player PV Sindhu survived a scare as defeated Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-23, 21-13 and 21-18 and entered the quarter-finals of the China Open on Thursday.

Third-seeded at the China Open, Sindhu went 21-23 down in the opening game against the World No. 24 Thai shuttler after a neck-to-neck fight throughout the game.

However, the Indian ensured she maintained the lead in the second game. She went 2-1 up and followed that up with six consecutive points as Sindhu raced the lead to 8-1 and went on to 11-6. Sindhu continued her dominate and control the game as she forced a decider in the match.

When the third game started, both the players were very careful and did not give even an advantage of an inch to the other. It was Sindhu, who took an early lead in the decider game and went 11-9 up. She then went on to bag five points on the trot and from there, she didn’t look back.

Meanwhile, the Thai player showed great sportsmanship as she continued to fight with a huge smile on the face as she levelled at 17-17. However, there was little Busanan could do from there as she ended up losing the decider game 21-18.

Sindhu sealed the match in 69 minutes and she will either play against China’s Chen Yufei or Sung Ji Hyun of Korea in the quarterfinals on Friday.