Guangzhou: It was a good day for Indians at the World Badminton Championships as Saina Nehwal alongwith PV Sindhu and Parupalli Kashyap beat their respective rivals in singles to reach the quarterfinals of the event here on Thursday.
However, PV Sindhu was the star of the day as she created one of the biggest upset of the tournament by beating the defending champion and local favourite Yihan Wang 21-18, 23-21. The Hyderabadi shuttler, who is ranked 12th in the world, got the better of the London Olympics silver medallist in 55 minutes at the Tianhe Indoor Stadium.
It was a hard-fought match for Sindhu as both the games went up the wire before the Indian finally beat Yihan, who had defeated her in Sudirman Cup earlier. Though Sindhu did manage to take a 12-9 lead in the first game, Yihan fought back to level it 16-16. But Sindhu fought hard to win the game 23-18.
In the second game too, the 18-year-old Hyderabdi took a 13-7 lead, Yihan came back from behind, and at one point of time was at game point (21-20). However, Sindhu held back her nerves to take the next two points to win the match in straight games.
Meanwhile, Saina beat Thai Porntip Buranaprasertsuk 18-21, 21-16, 21-14 in 52 minutes to reach the last eight stage.
Similarly Parupalli Kashyap too advanced to the men's singles quarters beating Hong Kong's sixth seed Yun Hu 21-13, 21-16 in 37 minutes.
