Badminton Asia Championship | Saina Nehwal advances to semis; PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth crash out

Kidambi Srikanth who recently became the World No. 1 in the BWF Ranking went down in the Badminton Asia Championship quarter-finals against Malaysian legend Lee Chong Wei. Earlier this month, Srikanth had lost to Lee Chong in the gold-medal match at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast as well after having beaten the legendary Malaysian in finals of the team event. 

The World No. 7 completely dominated the match as he beat Srikanth 21-12, 21-15 in about 32 minutes. The Malaysian was in complete control as he never allowed the 25-year-old Indian to make a comeback in the game and ended his campaign in the quarter-finals. 

On the other hand, in another disappointing result for Indians, PV Sindhu lost her quarter-final match against Sung Ji Hyun of Korea and went down 21-19, 21-10. In an intense first set, Sindhu and Ji Hyun displayed some fantastic badminton skills as they were level until 16-16 before the Korean took the first game. The second game was completely dominated by the South Korean as she won 21-10 to qualify for the semi-finals.

There was some positive result for the Indians as Saina Nehwal earned a good victory in her quarter-final game against Lee Jang Mi as she won 21-15, 21-13. She was trailing in the first set, 5-7 but came back well to win it and take the lead. In the second game, the 28-year-old Indian shuttler raced off to a 5-0 lead before there was a slight fightback from the Korean. But Saina proved to be too strong as she won her game in 43 minutes and advanced to the semi-final. 

She now awaits the winner of the match between top seed Tai Tzu Ying and China’s He Bingjiao for her semi-final clash.