Badminton Asia C’ships: Sindhu’s attacking play shines against Yue; Prannoy, Satwik-Chirag win too

It’s not always been easy for PV Sindhu to find her attacking rhythm since her return to action from a long injury layoff at the end of 2022. The results eluded for a while, but even when she reached the final at Spain Masters last month, it was on the back of some gritty badminton. But on Thursday, arguably for the first time since she returned on the international circuit at the start of the year, Sindhu put together her best display of attacking badminton as she came up with a straight-games win over China’s Han Yue in Dubai on Thursday at the Badminton Asia Championships.

Eighth seed Sindhu, who is ranked No 11 now, needed 33 minutes to beat the unseeded yet higher-ranked Yue (world No 9) 21-12 21-15 in a round of 16 match.

Besides Sindhu, India No 1 in men’s singles HS Prannoy also moved ahead but had to dig deep against Indonesia’s Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo 16-21 21-5 18-21. And joining India’s top-ranked singles players into the last eight was the top doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty. The sixth-seeded duo progressed to the quarterfinals with a solid 21-13 21-11 win over Jin Yong and Na Sung...

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