This story is from July 19, 2019

PV Sindhu beats Nozomi Okuhara to storm into Indonesia Open semis

Top Indian shuttler PV Sindhu stormed into the semifinals of the Indonesia Open after beating Japan's Nozomi Okuhara in straight games, 21-14, 21-7, in the women's singles event on Friday. Sindhu will face second seeded Chen Yu Fei of China in the last-four clash of the BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament.
PV Sindhu beats Nozomi Okuhara to storm into Indonesia Open semis
PV Sindhu (AFP Photo)
Key Highlights
  • Sindhu stormed into the semifinals of the Indonesia Open after beating Okuhara in straight games
  • Sindhu, seeded fifth, hardly had to break a sweat as she posted a comfortable 21-14, 21-7 win over the third seeded Japanese
  • The Indian will face second seeded Chen Yu Fei of China in the last-four clash
HYDERABAD: After stuttering in the first two rounds, PV Sindhu was at her fluent best as she stormed into the semifinals mauling Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 21-14, 21-7 in the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Open BWF Super-1000 Tournament in Jakarta on Friday.
The fifth seeded Indian took just 44 minutes to oust the former world champion.
"Very happy with my performance today, I really played well," Sindhu told BWF website after her dominating victory.
Unlike the match on Friday, the other 14 ties between the two have always been quite long and intense involving a number of long rallies.
Though there were long rallies Sindhu was in total control on Friday. "As you know when both of us play it is going to be long rallies. We are prepared for that, there were really good rallies, the match was very intense...hope I would recover soon and prepare for tomorrow's match. Happy that I did not make unforced errors today," said Sindhu, who avenged her Singapore Open semifinal loss against Okuhara.
In both the games Sindhu broke free from her opponent quite early. In the first game she went clear of Okuhara from the sixth point and in the second she started with a 6-1 lead.
In the semifinals, Sindhu will face Chen Yufei of China, who defeated Beiwen Zhang of USA 21-14, 17-21, 21-16.
Though Sindhu enjoys a 4-3 win-loss record against Yufei, the reigning All England champion is in great form this season.
"She is a very attacking player and has good strokes and an attacking player. I am waiting for tomorrow. I want to win this tournament that will give me positivity and relief," said Sindhu, who reached her third semifinal and is yet to make a final this year.

From the top half of the draw world No.1 Tai Tzu Ying and fourth seed Akane Yamaguchi made it to the last four stage. While Tai got the better of her nemesis Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand 21-18, 16-21, 21-12 and Yamaguchi downed Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand 21-17, 21-14.
Indian doubles teams in Russian Open semis
Mixed doubles team of Dhruv Kapila and Jakkampudi Meghana and women's doubles team of Poorvisha S Ram and Meghana reached the semifinals of the Russian Open BWF Super-100 tournament in Vladivastok on Friday.
However, singles shuttlers Siril Verma, Rituparna Das, mixed doubles team of Krishna Prasad Garaga-Poorvisha and women's doubles duo of Aparna Balan and Prajakta Sawant lost in the quarterfinals.
Dhruv and Meghana defeated Maksim Makalov and Ekaterina Riazantceva of Russia 21-3, 21-12 while top seed Meghana and Poorvisha made short work of Vikoriia Kozyreva and Mariia Sukhova 21-19, 21-11.
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