India's two-time Olympic medal-winner PV Sindhu came back from a game down to beat South Korea's Sim Yujin and enter the semifinals of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 tournament at Bali on Friday.
However, the other Indian in the fray, B Sai Praneeth, lost 12-21 8-21 in straight games to Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the men's singles quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, the men's doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty later beat Malaysia's Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin 21-19 21-19 in straight games to also make the semifinals.
Third seed Sindhu, the reigning world champion, had to toil hard to get the better of Yujin 14-21 21-19 21-14 in a quarterfinal that lasted an hour and six minutes. The Indian will play second seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, in her last four clash of the USD 850,000 event.
It was not smooth sailing for Sindhu against Yujin. The Indian started confidently, racing to a 7-1 lead before the South Korean pocketed six straight points to draw the first game level. Once Yujin took a slender 11-10 lead at the break, she didn't look back and won the game comfortably to grab the early momentum.
The Korean continued in the same vein in the second game and matched Sindhu stroke for stroke till the first seven points before the Indian upped her game. Sindhu displayed better control and authority over her strokes and engaged her rival in long rallies to surge ahead 14-8 before Yujin fought back. Sindhu used her vast experience and held her nerves to draw the contest level.
In the decider, Sindhu enjoyed the early exchanges to race to a comfortable 11-4 lead but Yujin secured seven consecutive points to make it 11-11. Sensing trouble, Sindhu took her game to the next level just at the right time to outwit her rival and seal the match in her favour.