After overcoming a scare, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu defeated Sim Yu Jin of Korea in three games on Thursday to advance to the Malaysia Masters Super 500 badminton tournament quarterfinals. Global No. 15 In a 59-minute women’s singles second-round match, Sindhu—a former world champion—beat Sim 21-13 12-21 21-14 to earn her third victory over the 34-ranked Korean player. The Hyderabadi player, 28, hasn’t been able to reach his peak performance level since making a comeback to the game in October of last year due to a knee injury.
Next up, in a retaliation match, fifth-seeded Sindhu will take on top-seeded Han Yue. In their most recent match, which took place at the Asia badminton Championships in Ningbo last month, the Chinese had won.
Sindhu, who last won a title in 2022 Singapore Open, has an overwhelming 5-1 head-to-head record against Han, who is now ranked world number 6.
Sindhu was left to do the catching up job in the opening game as she trailed 3-7. But she fought her way back and grabbed a slender 11-10 advantage at the break. The Indian then reeled off seven points to run away with the opening game.
The second game was a tight affair as the two fought hard with Han managing to take a one-point advantage at the interval. She snatched the momentum after resumption.
The Korean quickly took a 14–10 lead and won seven of the following nine points to dramatically tie the game.
In the decider, Sim got off to another strong start and led 5-1. However, Sindhu rallied at 6–6, and at one point the Korean led 9–8.
After that, the Indian took charge and quickly went up to 13–9 before a five-point run from 16–14 ended the game.
In other results, the top-seeded Malaysian pair, Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei, defeated B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy in mixed doubles 9-21 15-21, while Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker lost 17-21 11-21 to second-seeded Malaysians, Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan, in women’s doubles.
