India’s ace shuttler PV Sindhu has successfully progressed to the semifinals of the women’s singles event at the Malaysia Open badminton tournament. Her opponent, Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi, retired midway through their match due to injury concerns at the Stadium Axiata Arena.
Sindhu was leading 21-11 when Yamaguchi informed the chair umpire that she could not continue, as her injury was significantly hampering her movement. Yamaguchi, who came onto the court wearing a knee brace, struggled from the beginning, allowing Sindhu to quickly build a 10-2 lead.
Despite her tactical efforts to push Sindhu deep into the backcourt, Yamaguchi’s frustrations grew as unforced errors crept into her game. In just 12 minutes, Sindhu wrapped up the first game, after which Yamaguchi conceded, marking Sindhu’s first Super 1000 semifinal in three years.
This achievement marks the first time Sindhu has reached the Malaysia Open semifinals in eight years. She will next face either sixth-seeded Indonesian Putri Kusuma Wardani or second-seeded Chinese Wang Zhi Yi.
Earlier, on Thursday, Sindhu defeated 19-year-old Tomoka Miyazaki 21-8, 21-13 in just 33 minutes, securing her first Super 1000 quarterfinal of the season.
Later that day, the duo of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, two-time world championships bronze medallists, were set to compete against Indonesia’s sixth-seeded pair Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri. The third-seeded Inddigihunt advanced to the quarterfinals after clinching a 21-18, 21-11 victory over Malaysia’s Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap in 39 minutes, extending their head-to-head record against the Malaysian duo to 4–0.
In women’s doubles, the pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand faced elimination after losing to Indonesia’s Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Meilysa Trias Puspita Sari with scores of 21-9, 21-23, 21-19 in the opening round.