Odense. Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu recovered from a bad start and defeated world number seven Han Yue of China to reach the quarter-finals of the Denmark Open Super 750 badminton tournament here on Thursday. Former world champion and currently world number 18 Sindhu won the second round match 18-21 21-12 21-16 in 63 minutes.
This is Sindhu’s first win against a top 10 player after defeating Hein in the Malaysia Masters final in May.
This is Sindhu’s seventh win in eight matches against Hein whereas she has faced defeat once. Sindhu, who reached the final here in 2015, is now the only Indian player left in the tournament. She will face the winner of the match between Paris Olympics bronze medalist Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia and Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark in the next round.
Sindhu, who returned empty-handed from Paris for the first time in three Olympics, has registered 10 wins in 12 matches against Tunjung, but this year the two players have not clashed yet. Sindhu and Hein started with short rallies and started by sharing eight points. The Indian player lost five consecutive points and fell behind. He exhausted the first round match on Wednesday by engaging in a heinous rally and winning in 79 minutes.
Sindhu made a comeback and made the score 9-10 but the Chinese player again took the lead of 14-10. Sindhu made mistakes while showing aggressive attitude, which Hein took advantage of and scored points. Sindhu then trailed 13-17 and Hein won six game points with a body return. The Indian player saved four game points but Hein won the game with a cross court shot.
In the second game, Sindhu adopted a positive attitude from the beginning and took a 3-0 lead. He did better in the rally and took an 11-6 lead at the break with accurate smashes. Hen also lost points by making serious mistakes during this period. Sindhu also played well at the net and took a lead of 15-7. He scored 10 game points and then won the second game to take the match to the deciding game.
There was a tough competition between the two players in the third and deciding game. However, Sindhu played better and took a lead of 6-3. However, Hein controlled his mistakes and scored six consecutive points to take an 11-7 lead at the break.
However, Sindhu leveled the score at 11-11 with four consecutive points. Hein won the rally of 45 shots at the score of 12-13 and scored the point. After this the score remained equal from 14-14 to 16-16. Sindhu took the lead 19-16 with three consecutive points including a backhand winner and then won four match points. After this, Hein put the game and the match in Sindhu’s bag by hitting the shot outside.