World Badminton C'ships: Sindhu, Nehwal eye final berths

Rio Olympic silver-medallist PV Sindhu and ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal will aim to book their places in the finals of the World Badminton Championships when they play their respective semi-final clash of the women's singles event here on Saturday.

Sindhu, the world number four, was in a ruthless mood during the quarter-final clash against her Chinese opponent and fifth-seed Sun Yu, dispatching her 21-14, 21-9 in just 39 minutes to storm into the last-four

The Indian, who has now guaranteed herself a medal after reaching the last-four, will now cross swords with China's Chen Yufei for a place in the summit showdown.

 

London Olympic bronze-medallist Nehwal, on the other hand, booked her place in the semi-finals after struggling past 16th seed Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland.

After comfortably winning the opening game, Nehwal went down in the second before she rebounded strongly to register a 21-19, 18-21, 21-15 win over her Scottish opponent.

Nehwal will now cross swords with seventh-seed Nozomi Okuhara of Japan for a final berth.

Earlier, India's wait of clinching their maiden medal in the men's category at the World Championships shattered after Kidambi Srikanth slumped to a 14-21, 18-21 defeat at the hands of world number one Wan Ho in an exhilarating last-eight clash that lasted 49 minutes.