Sindhu sails into maiden semi-final of French Open; Sai Praneeth exits

World Championship silver medallist PV Sindhu beat Chen Yufei of China in straight games to storm into the women's singles semi-final of the French Super Series, in Paris, on Friday.

This is Sindhu's first-ever last-four appearence in the tournament. The Olympic silver medallist took just 41 minutes to brush the challenge of World No. 10 Yufei 21-14 21-14 in the quarter-finals.

By virtue of this win, Indian had avenged upon her opening round loss to the Chinese at the Denmark Open, last week. Sindhu, who had defeated Yufei at the World Championships, now lead the Chinese 3-2 in the overall head- to-head record.

Sindhu was in her element today as she used her long reach and court coverage to flummox her opponent and get the better of her with consummate ease. Yufei did not look her best today as she was undone by numerous unforced errors. Sindhu, seeded second, always enjoyed the upperhand in the duel, except for the first 10 points of the opening game where it was neck-and-neck battle between the duo.

But once she surged ahead 12-10, there was no looking back as Sindhu controlled the game from there on with deft drop shots and down the line and cross court smashes to race to 18-12 lead. Yufei managed to grab two points but unforced errors cost her dearly as she pushed a drop shot wide to hand the Indian the first game in 19 minutes.

Sindhu, however, was slow to get off the blocks in the second game as Yufei took a 3-0 lead. But the Indian managed to claw her way back, courtesy unforced errors from the Chinese to draw level at 5-5. From there on, Sindhu controlled the proceedings, except for a few unforced errors in between, to take a 11-7 lead at the break.

The Indian then managed to hold to her lead and pocketed the second game in 22 minuts to wrap up the issue. Sindhu will next play the winner of another quarter-final between third seed Sung Ji Hyun of Korea and Japanese fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi on Saturday.

Earlier, H S Prannoy had things his way as he beat Denmark's Hans-Kristian Vittinghus in straight games to progress to the men's singles quarter-finals.

The rising Indian star, who regained his career-best ranking of world No 12, achieved in June two years ago, needed just 31 minutes for a 21-11, 21-12 victory, which set up a clash against 2016 Australian Open finalist Jeon Hyeok-jin of Korea.

"Good win against Vittinghus last night to advance to the Quarterfinals!! Tricky one awaiting later in the evening," Prannoy tweeted after the match.

The Indian had narrowly lost to the world No 31 Jeon at the Canada Open earlier this year.

In another men's singles match, it was curtains for Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth; he was beaten 13-21, 17-21 by Japan's Kenta Nishimoto late Thursday night.

The young Indian doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, meanwhile, notched a stunning victory over the world No 6 Danish combo of Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding to reach their second quarter-final of the season.

The world No 32 Indian pair, which reached the quarters at the Korea Open, dished out a superb performance to shock the 2016 European champions 22-20, 12-21, 21-19 in a match that lasted an hour.

"We are very happy to win the match today. We were leading 16-8 in the third game but made some simple errors and it was 19-all. Somehow we managed to win," Chirag said.

The Indian pair will square off against another Danish pair, Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen, the 2012 London Games silver medallists.

In the quarter-finals, newly-crowned Denmark Open champion Kidambi Srikanth will face fourth seeded Chinese Shi Yuqi, who had reached the final at the All England Championship in March.

Srikanth, who rose to world No. 4 on Thursday, has a 2-0 record against the Chinese, both victories coming this season, at Singapore and Australia.

Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu will meet world No. 10 Chinese Chen Yufei, who had beaten her in the opening round at Odense, Denmar, last week.

The Indian will look at her World Championship win over the Chinese for inspiration as she looks to break the 2-2 deadlock.