Badminton: Sindhu advances into semi-finals of World Championships

India's Pusarla Sindhu in action.. PHOTO: REUTERS

GLASGOW (REUTERS) - India's Pusarla Sindhu assured herself of a third BWF World Championships medal on Friday (Aug 25), swatting aside China's Sun Yu 21-14 21-9 to enter the semi-finals of the event in Glasgow.

The 22-year-old, who has won bronze medals in the 2013 and 2014 editions and is looking to become the first person from her country to claim the title, set up a clash with China's world junior champion Chen Yufei.

"I lost to her (Sun) the last time we played in Dubai," said Sindhu, who displayed sublime skills at the net, an area she has improved on. "Overall it went well today. I'm happy."

Sindhu will be wary of her semi-final opponent Chen, who upset top seed Akane Yamaguchi in the previous round before following that up by stunning Thailand's eighth seed Ratchanok Intanon 14-21 21-16 21-12 on Friday.

Denmark's Viktor Axelsen, striving to emulate compatriot Peter Rasmussen, who was the last European man to win this event in 1997, mixed power and precision to down Taiwan's Chou Tien Chen 21-18 20-22 21-16 in 74 minutes.

"It's my goal to win as many medals as possible for myself and Denmark," the world number 3, who won the bronze medal in the Rio Olympics, said after his match.

"I'm just overwhelmingly happy right now."

Next up for Axelsen is China's Chen Long, who kept alive his hopes of a hat-trick of world titles by beating compatriot Tian Houwei 21-12 21-17 in 63 minutes.

South Korea's Son Wan-ho beat Kidambi Srikanth 21-14 21-18 to end the Indian's 13 match winning streak. Srikanth, who won back-to-back Superseries in Indonesia and Australia this year, paid the price for too many errors against the top seed.

In the semi-finals, Son will run into Chinese seventh seed Lin Dan, who saw off the challenge of Hong Kong's Wong Wing-ki 21-17 21-18 in 59 minutes.

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