PV Sindhu Enters Japan Open Semis After Okuhara Withdraws; Faces Chen Yufei Next
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Summarized by AI; it may make mistakes. Check important info
Indian badminton star PV Sindhu advanced to the semifinals of the Japan Open after Japan's Nozomi Okuhara withdrew from their quarterfinal clash on Friday.
The semifinal appearance marks Sindhu's third of the season, following her runs at the Malaysia Super 1000 and Australia Super 500. It is also her first Super 750 semifinal since the 2023 Denmark Open.
Sindhu will now take on Tokyo Olympic champion and world No. 4 Chen Yufei of China in the last four. The Indian trails the Chinese shuttler 6-8 in their head-to-head record and has lost each of their last five meetings.
A win over Chen would not only snap Sindhu's losing streak against the Chinese star but also send her into her first Super 750 final in nearly three years.
Earlier in the tournament, Sindhu had defeated China's world No. 5 Han Yue 21-16, 21-14 in just 35 minutes to reach the quarterfinals, leaving her as India's lone remaining contender in the BWF Super 750 event.
Chen enters the semifinal in strong form after winning the Indonesia Masters this year and finishing runner-up at the Thailand and Malaysia Super 500 tournaments. She also reached the semifinals of the Singapore and India Super 750 events, along with the Malaysia Open and All England Super 1000 tournaments.
India's campaign ended in the mixed doubles event after Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto lost 20-22, 17-21 to China's Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping in the pre-quarterfinals.
In women's singles, Unnati Hooda bowed out after losing to Chinese Taipei's Huang Yu-Hsun despite taking the second game. Earlier, both Indian men's doubles pairs—Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, and MR Arjun and Hariharan Amsakarunan—were knocked out in the opening round, with Satwik and Chirag's exit also compounded by another injury setback.
