By 
P V Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medalist, came back from a game down to beat Sim Yujin of South Korea and advance to the semifinals of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 competition at Bali on Friday.
In a quarterfinal that lasted an hour and six minutes, third seed Sindhu, the reigning world champion, had to work hard to beat Yujin 14-21 21-19 21-14.
In the USD 850,000 tournament, the Indian will face the winner of the other quarterfinal between Japan’s Asuka Takahashi and Thailand’s second seed Ratchanok Intanon.
In the men’s singles quarterfinals , B Sai Praneeth of India will face Olympic champion and former world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.
In a gruelling second round encounter on Thursday, Praneeth, the world no.16, defeated France’s world no. 70 Christo Popov, 21-17 14-21 21-19.
The sixth seeded pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, rated 11, will face the Malaysian combination of Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin in the quarterfinals later on Friday.
Sindhu’s battle with Yujin was far from easy. The Indians jumped out to a 7-1 lead before the Japanese came back with six consecutive points to tie the first game.
Yujin, on the other hand, didn’t look back after taking a slim 11-10 lead at halftime and easily won the game.
In the second game, the Japanese proceeded in the same vein, matching Sindhu stroke for stroke for the first seven points before the Indian improved her game.
Sindhu had more control and authority over her strokes and engaged her opponent in long rallies to take a 14-8 lead before Yujin rallied..
Sindhu dominated the early exchanges in the decider, racing to an 11-4 lead, but the Japanese rallied for seven successive points to tie the game at 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.
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