-Olympics
India’s PV Sindhu produced a clinical performance to defeat Chinese Taipei’s Wen Chi Hsu in the Arctic Open 2023 women’s singles round of 16 match at the Vantaa Energia Areena in Finland on Thursday.
PV Sindhu, 13th in the badminton rankings, pocketed the contest with a 21-11, 21-10 scoreline for her third win over the world No. 22 shuttler in as many matches. The two players met in the round of 32 at the Asian Games, where the Indian shuttler also won in straight games.
Just like in her first match against former world champion Nozomi Okuhara, PV Sindhu was pushed on the back foot by Wen Chi Hsu in the early exchanges. The Indian badminton player conceded three points before scoring one but led by four points at the first break.
PV Sindhu, with her signature attacking style of play, dominated Wen Chi Hsu for the rest of the match. After winning the first game, PV Sindhu raced to an 8-1 lead in the second game and then sealed the contest in 37 minutes.
PV Sindhu, a former world champion and two-time Olympic medallist, is searching for her first BWF title of the 2023 badminton season. She will face Vietnam’s Thuy Linh Nguyen in the quarter-finals of the BWF Super 500 event on Friday.
Aakarshi Kashyap, meanwhile, went down to the fifth-seeded Wang Zhi Yi of China later in the day.
The Indian challenge ended in men’s singles. Kidambi Srikanth’s losing streak against Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan was extended to three after the Indian badminton player lost the round of 16 contest 21-15, 21-12.
Kiran George, meanwhile, lost 21-10, 22-20 to fourth-seeded Lu Guang Zu of China.
Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa suffered a narrow 21-19, 21-19 defeat against the French pair of Margot Lambert and Anne Tran.
Featured Image: mykhel