Badminton: Sindhu, Prannoy enter Macau Open semis

Indian shuttlers P.V. Sindhu and H.S. Prannoy came out with contrasting wins to enter their respective semi-finals at the $120,000 Macau Open Grand Prix Gold on Friday. While defending champion Sindhu defeated China’s Li Han 21-17, 19-21, 21-16 in a marathon encounter which lasted an hour and three minutes, Prannoy had a relatively easy triumph over Indonesian Sony Dwi Kuncoro 21-19 21-17 in 42 minutes at the Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion. [caption id=“attachment_1760067” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PV Sindhu. AFP[/caption] Men’s singles third seed Prannoy, who in September won the Indonesian Masters, easily downed the 13th seed in the quarter-final to take a 2-0 lead in career record. He will next play Hong Kong sixth seed Wong Wing Ki Vincent or German second seed German Marc Zwiebler. In their first career meeting, women’s singles second seed Sindhu was made to toil by the World No.17 Li but the Indian came out on top winning the quarter-final 21-17, 19-21, 21-16. Two-time World Championships bronze medallist Sindhu started the first game on a bright note, taking a 5-1 lead before fifth seed Li bridged the gap at 6-6. Second seed Sindhu re-took the lead by scoring three straight points which put her in the front till she finally won the game. The second game saw neck-and-neck competition before the Chinese prevailed. However, in the decider, Sindhu played positively and grabbed five successive points to take a 14-8 lead. Han matched the World No.11 Hyderabadi and picked up four points successively and reduced the deficit to one. The 19-year-old Sindhu, however, showed her quality and finished the game without any hassles. Sindhu should feel confident about her next match as she will be up against Thai eighth seed Busanan Ongbumrungan against whom the Indian has a brilliant 4-0 record. IANS