Producing yet another emphatic performance, Indian giant-slayer P.V. Sindhu stunned the recently-crowned All England champion Shixian Wang to breeze into the semifinals even as it was end of the road for Saina Nehwal in the $125,000 Swiss Grand Prix Gold here.
In the men’s singles, P. Kashyap also booked a semifinal berth with a hard-fought victory over sixth seed Tien Chen Chou of Chinese Taipei.
Seventh-seeded Sindhu played a dominating game to assert her supremacy over two-time All England champion with a 21-17, 21-15 win in a 45-minute match to set up a semifinal clash with another fast emerging Chinese Sun Yu.
It was Sindu’s third win over Shixian in as many matches.
Last year she had humbled the Chinese at the World championship in the quarterfinals.
However, Olympic bronze medallist Saina had a tough time dealing with world No. 3 Yihan Wang as she slipped to a 21-17, 21-12 defeat, her seventh to a Chinese, in a 38-minute match.
Kashyap, meanwhile, took an hour and 14 minutes to tame Tien 21-15, 21-23, 21-18 — his second win against the Taiwanese — and would face world No. 27 Houwei Tian of China in the semifinals.
World No. 9 Sindhu showed once again why she is considered to be India’s next big badminton sensation as she produced a beautifully controlled and carefully-paced game to keep Shixian at bay throughout the quarterfinal match.
In the first game, Sindhu broke off at 12-12 and in the second game, the Indian never allowed Shixian to grab the lead from 16-15. The Indian then reeled off five straight points to seal her place in the semifinals against Sun.
Sixth-seeded Saina, however, who will turn 24 on Monday, could not gift herself a birthday gift as top seed Yihan once again stamped her authority on the Indian.
