Sindhu creates history, ensures a medal at World badminton

Rising shuttler P V Sindhu today created history by becoming the first Indian woman singles player to ensure a medal at the World Badminton Championships after scoring an upset win over local favourite Shixian Wang of China to enter the semifinals here.
Playing in her maiden World Championships, Sindhu, seeded 10th, had an easy outing against the World No. 8 and seventh seeded Wang. The Indian took just 55 minutes to get the better of her fancied Chinese opponent 21-18 21-17.
World No. 12, Sindhu will take on the winner of the match between Carolina Marin and Ratchanok Intanon in the last four round.

Before Sindhu, Prakash Padukone won a medal in the World Championships way back in 1983 when he bagged a bronze in the men singles event in Copenhagen, while the women's doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa bagged another bronze for India in the last edition of the tournament at London in 2011.
Against Wang today, Sindhu relied on her smashes, besides hitting as many as 19 clear winners.
The 18-year-old Indian started to dominate from the word go. After initially being tied at 3-3, the Hyderabadi surged ahead to open a slight 6-3 lead.
Determined not to lose the advantage, Sindhu kept on increasing the gap to make it 13-8.