It took just 41 minutes for PV Sindhu to dismantle her Chinese opponent Chen Yufei 21-14, 21-14 on Friday, to move into the semifinals of the French Superseries in Paris.
The world no. 2 dominated from start to finish to record a straightforward win and achieve revenge of sorts for her first round defeat at the hands of the same opponent in the very first round of Denmark Superseries Premier last week. Chen had also defeated Sindhu in the Malaysia Open in May while Sindhu ended up as the winner in the semi-final of the World Championships in Glasgow.
Perhaps conscious of the slow start she made in the defeat in Denmark, Sindhu started the game on front foot, racing into a 11-6 lead before closing it off 21-14. The standout feature of Sindhu’s game was the accuracy and ferocity of her jump smashes, an aspect that is not too common these days – but it was evident Sindhu wanted to dominate from the word go.
The second game saw Chen take a 4-1 lead but Sindhu soon found her footing and began smashing her way back into the game. In the end, she stayed in the lead for the rest of the match to wrap things up with her second match point.
Sindhu will now face the winner of Sung ji Hyun and Akane Yamaguchi, who ended Saina Nehwal’s run in Paris in the second round.