BWF World C'ships: PV Sindhu overcomes Pornpawee Chochuwong challenge to set up clash vs Tai Tzu Ying

On Thursday in Huelva, India's PV Sindhu defeated Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong 21-14 21-18 in the Round of 16 of the ongoing 2021 BWF World Championships. Sindhu, the defending champion, has advanced to the quarter-finals.

The two-time Olympic medalist got off to a good start, grabbing a 5-1 lead in the first game. Her Thai opponent fought back, cutting the lead to 4-5. Sindhu rushed to the lead once more, turning the score 7-4 in her favour.

The ninth-seed Thai girl fought hard once more to tie the game at 9-9. The sixth-seeded Sindhu then stormed ahead again, scoring 5 points in a row to increase her advantage to 14-9, and she never looked back, taking the first game 21-14.

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Sindhu, a five-time world champion, opened the second game similarly, gaining a 3-0 lead. However, Thai shuttler Chochuwong fought her way back, winning four points in a row and gaining a 4-3 lead against the Indian.

The World No.7 shuttler from Hyderabad stretched her advantage once further, winning four points in a row to make it 7-4. She never looked back after that, making it 11-6 at the second game break.

She came back even stronger after the interval, gaining a 7-point lead with the score 17-10 in her favour. Pornpawee Chochuwong made a few excellent strokes, but she couldn't bother Sindhu enough to win the match as the two-time Olympic medalist took the second and penultimate game 21-18.

The reigning champion Sindhu won the match 21-14 21-18 in 48 minutes, increasing her head-to-head advantage against world no. 10 Chochuwong to 5-3 and also recording her first win over the opposition after two consecutive defeats.

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Sindhu will play top seed and world number one Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, who overcame Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland in the quarterfinals 21-10 19-21 21-11.

Sindhu, who received a first-round bye, had defeated Slovakia's Martina Repiska in the second round on Tuesday, 21-7 21-9.

Meanwhile, the Russian badminton federation's Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Suzonov defeated the Indian doubles combination of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila in straight games. Arjun and Dhruv were defeated 11-21, 16-21 in 41 minutes.