That's all the badminton action we have for you today from the BWF World Championships in Basel. A fantastic day for Indian fans and hopefully it gets better tomorrow when PV Sindhu and B Sai Praneeth take court. Follow Firstpost's continued coverage of Worlds and everything from around the globe. Until tomorrow, it's goodbye!
Bringing you up to speed with key achievements by both Sindhu and Sai Praneeth:
- PV Sindhu with just her second win in eight matches against Tai Tzu Ying
- Sindhu assuring herself of a third medal in a row at the World Championships and fifth overall.
- B Sai Praneeth becomes second Indian since Prakash Padukone to reach last-four of Worlds
Two medals for India in the same edition will happen just for the second time.
#BWFWorldChampionships
— Abhijeet Kulkarni (@abk6580) August 23, 2019
With Sai Praneeth and Sindhu reaching the semi-finals, this will be the second time that India will have two medallist from the same edition. Saina and Sindhu had achieved that feat in 2017. India's medals tally now stands at 10 with Sindhu bagging 50%
B Sai Praneeth registers a historic win!
Praneeth has ended India's 36-year wait for a men's singles medal at the World Championships with a 24-22, 21-14 win over Jonatan Christie. He was outstanding from the word go and didn't look back despite losing focus midway in the second game. A great feat after owing the last two years to injuries and indifferent form.
Praneeth is surging ahead!
Praneeth leads 11-3 at the mid-game break!
— Firstpost Sports (@FirstpostSports) August 23, 2019
Christie's body language isn't looking great right now
Meanwhile, Praneeth's disciplined gameplay is bearing fruit #BWC2019 #BWFWC2019
LIVE: https://t.co/HKUTGAvXme
The latest edition of BWF World Championship is underway in Basel, Switzerland, with the quarter-finals starting today. The Indian challenge will be led by B sai Praneeth and PV Sindhu. Praneeth stunned World No 8 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the pre-quarters, while the experienced HS Prannoy lost on Thursday.
File image PV Sindhu. AP
Praneeth sent Indonesia's Ginting packing after a 21-19, 21-13 victory. Prannoy managed to put up a good fight against World No 1 Kento Momota but lost 19-21, 12-21.
Praneeth was on top of his game from the start as he erased a 0-3 deficit to move to an 8-5 deficit. He entered the break with an 11-8 advantage.
After the interval, Ginting pulled things back at 14-12 and threatened to stop Praneeth before the Indian got his act together to win the opening game with three straight points from 18-19.
In the second game, Praneeth moved to 6-2 but Anthony made his way to manage an 11-8 lead at the breather. After the break, Praneeth kept marching ahead as Ginting crumbled.
India's No 1 men's singles shuttler Kidambi Srikanth suffered an unexpected defeat to Thailand's Kantaphon Wangcharoen in straight games.
Meanwhile, PV Sindhu dominated against Beiwen Zhang with a 21-14, 21-6 win in the third round. Saina Nehwal was ousted by Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt in a three-game contest 21-15, 25-27, 12-21.
Sen beat his fourth seeded Chinese opponent 21-17 21-15 in a round of 16 match that lasted 49 minutes and faces qualifier Leong Jun Hao of Malaysia in the quarter-finals on Friday.
The win helped Lakshya Sen to enter the last four for the first time this season, having come close in Indonesia Masters, where he exited in the quarterfinals.
China's Chen Yufei defeated world number two South Korea's An Se Young 21-16, 22-20 in the women's singles to seal victory
