Canada Open: Indian players move forward strongly, PV Sindhu-Lakshay Sen made it to the semi-finals
Calgary. Commonwealth Games champions PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen registered contrasting victories to enter the semi-finals of the Canada Open Super 500 badminton tournament here. Sindhu, who won two medals in the Olympics, easily defeated Fang Jie 21-13 21-7 in the women’s singles quarterfinals played on Friday night. This is his first win against this player in four matches. Sen beat German qualifier Julian Caraggi 21-8, 17-21, 21-10 in the men’s singles quarter-finals.
Sindhu will now take on world number one Yamaguchi of Japan while Sen will take on fourth seeded Kenta Nishimoto of Japan. PV Sindhu has a 14-10 record against the top seeded Japanese player. The last meeting between the two was played at the Singapore Open last year in which the Japanese player won. Sen, on the other hand, has a 1-1 record against Nishimoto. Sindhu started well against Fang Jie and took a 5-1 lead. The Indian player was leading 11-6 till the interval.
Sindhu covers the court well. Fang Jie then tried to come back and make it 12-16 but Sindhu did not give her any further chance and won the first game easily. Fang Jie raced to a 5-1 lead early in the second game but Sindhu soon came back to lead 11-5 at the interval. After this, he did not take long to win the match.
