Tenth seed P.V. Sindhu packed off defending champion and local favourite Wang Yihan to reach the quarterfinals of the World badminton championships along with compatriots Saina Nehwal and Parupalli Kashyap in their respective categories here on Thursday.
On a fantastic day for Indian badminton, where all three shuttlers reached the last eight stage, the World No.12 caused the biggest upset of the tournament by knocking out the London Olympics silver medallist 21-18, 23-21 in 55 minutes in the women's singles third round at the Tianhe Indoor Stadium.
Third seed Saina beat Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand 18-21, 21-16, 21-14 in a clash which lasted 52 minutes to also move into the last eight. In the men's section, Parupalli Kashyap recorded an upset victory over world No. 6 Hu Yun of Hong Kong 21-13, 21-16 in a 37-minute contest to enter into the quarterfinals.
Sindhu had a neck-and-neck tussle with her more fancied opponent, seeded second in the tournament, till 8-8 before the Indian surged ahead to open up a 12-9 lead. But the higher-ranked Chinese was not the one to give it up so easily and it was again a closely-contested affair till 16-16. Sindhu, seeded 10th, then won two consecutive points, which she followed up by widening the margin to eventually win the first game 21-18.
The second game started on an equal footing and went on till 6-6 before Sindhu managed to take a huge 13-7 lead. Continuing to build on the initial advantage, the girl from Hyderabad extended the gap and made it 20-17.
But the Chinese used her vast experience to save as many as three match points to make it 20-20 and then took it a step further by bagging another point to take the upper hand.
Sindhu, however, maintained her composure to save the point before going for the final kill. The young Indian next runs into the world No. 8 Wang Shixian.
In the Saina-Buranaprasertsuk match, the Thai started off strongly and surprised the Indian with better command over smash winners, sending down 11 of them in the first game.
But Saina regained her composure pretty quickly and roared back in the second game with nine of her trademark smash winners. She kept up the pressure in the deciding game as well to emerge triumphant after the initial scare.
All the three Indians are just one step away from clinching a medal in the tourney.
The results (pre-quarterfinals):
Men: 1-Lee Chong Wei (Mas) bt 14-Wang Zhengming (Chn) 21-12, 21-7; 2-Chen Long (Chn) bt Daren Liew (Mas) 21-18, 21-15; 3-Du Pengyu (Chn) bt 16-Takuma Ueda (Jpn) 21-19, 13-21, 21-7; 13-P. Kashyap (Ind) bt 6-Hu Yun (HK) 21-13, 21-16 ; 7-Nguyen Tien Minh (Vie) bt Pablo Abian (Esp) 15-21, 21-9, 21-10; 8-Tommy Sugiarto (Ina) bt 11-Marc Zwiebler (Ger) 21-19, 21-14; Lin Dan (Chn) bt 15-Chong Wei Feng (Mas) 22-20, 21-10; Jan O Jorgensen (Den) bt 4-Boonsak Ponsana (Tha) 10-21, 21-17, 21-18.
Women: 1-Li Xuerui (Chn) bt 9-Lindaweni Fanetri (Ina) 21-10, 21-12; 3- Saina Nehwal (Ind) bt 15-Porntip Buranaprasertsuk (Tha) 18-21, 21-16, 21-14 ; 4-Ratchanok Intanon (Tha) bt 16-Yip Pui Yin (HK) 21-14, 21-12; Carolina Marin (Esp) bt 5-Sung Ji-Hyun (Kor) 13-21, 21-13, 22-20; 6-Tai Tzu-ying (Tpe) bt Linda Zetchiri (Bul) 21-13, 21-16; 7-Wang Shixian (Chn) bt 11-Eriko Hirose (Jpn) 21-8, 21-13; 13-Yeon Ju Bae (Kor) bt Sayaka Takahashi (Jpn) 21-19, 21-17; 10-P.V. Sindhu (Ind) bt 2-Wang Yihan (Chn) 21-18, 23-21.
