All England Open: PV Sindhu storms into semis, sets up clash against P Chochuwong

India`s Sindhu V Pusarla plays against Japan`s Akane Yamaguchi during their women`s singles quarter-final match on day three of the All England Open Badminton Championship, at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham, central England. Pic/AFP

Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu stormed into women's singles semi-finals of the All England Open Badminton Championships after a thrilling victory over Japan's Akane Yamaguchi on Friday (local time). The reigning world badminton champion came from behind to beat Akane 16-21, 21-16, 21-19 in 76 minutes long match to reach the semi-finals of the tournament. Sindhu had lost the first set but staged a thrilling comeback to take the game in the decider.

The hard-fought game saw rallies getting longer and longer in the third set. At one point, Sindhu was leading the decider 11-15 but Akane bounced back to with four consecutive points. However, the India shuttler shifted gears in the final minutes of the play to win the quarter-final match on Friday. Sindhu will now lock horns with Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand on Saturday. Earlier, shuttler Lakshya Sen crashed out of the ongoing All England Open after losing the quarter-finals clash against Netherlands' Mark Caljouw.

The 19-year-old failed to overcome Caljouw's challenge and lost the hard-fought encounter 17-21, 21-16, 17-21 in the clash that lasted for 55 minutes. Lakshya faced a defeat in the first game but in the second game, he made a strong return and gave a tough fight to the opponent to take the clash into the third game. But in the final game of the match, Caljouw showed his grit and experience to progress to the semi-finals of the competition. Also, the women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy bowed out of the competition after losing in straight games to Netherlands' Selena Piek and Cheryl Seinen in the quarterfinals. The Indian duo lost to the 24th-ranked pair of Selena and Cheryl 22-24, 12-21 in 39 minutes.

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