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PV Sindhu put up a strong display to beat Thailand's Supanida Katethong 21-19, 21-12 and entered the semifinals of the BWF Denmark Open 2023 on Friday at the Jyske Bank Arena in Odense.
Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu will now face Carolina Marin of Spain who defeated Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei 19-21, 21-15, 21-18 in the semi-final of the BWF Super 750 tournament. Carolina Marin has won 10 matches against PV Sindhu while the Indian shuttler has triumphed five times. The Spaniard, in fact, has won her last four outings against Sindhu, including at the Malaysia Open in January this year. The first game between Sindhu and Katethong ebbed and flowed, with both shuttlers going toe to toe for every point. PV Sindhu, a former world champion, picked up two points early in the game but conceded five straight before making a strong comeback to go up 11-8 into the mid-game break. Placed 12th in the badminton rankings, Sindhu was slightly better than her world No. 19 opponent post the interval, taking the first game in 21 minutes. The second game was also equally contested and it was Sindhu who, despite Katethong's sustained efforts, edged ahead 11-9 at the break. Sindhu, the Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist, then put her best foot forward to pocket the second game and move to the last four. The match lasted 46 minutes. This was the sixth meeting between Sindhu and Katethong. The Indian now leads the head-to-head 4-2. Sindhu had defeated Scotland's Kirsty Gilmour and Indonesia's Gregoria Tunjung, the seventh seed, in the previous rounds. Aakarshi Kashyap was the other Indian in the women's singles. She crashed out of the tournament in the Round of 16. Meanwhile, Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth exited the men's singles event after losing their respective opening-round matches. Results at the Denmark Open will count towards players' qualifying rankings for the Paris 2024 Olympics. The qualification window for badminton started on May 1 this year. (ANI)
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