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The BWF Dubai Superseries Finals 2017 enter their business end as the knockout stages kick off on Saturday across all five categories. The top two shuttlers from each group move into the semifinals and the representative from India will be ace shuttler PV Sindhu.
The reigning Olympic silver medalist has had a fine run in the competition so far, winning all three of our group games against formidable opponents and dropping just the one game in the process.
Her first win came against He Bingjiao of China, who was defeated in a monumental battle that lasted over an hour. The Indian ace won by a slim margin in the end as the match ended 21-11 16-21 21-18.
In her next two games, Sindhu was simply unstoppable and romped home with two straight-game victories. Japan's Sayaka Sato was demolished 21-13 21-12 in just 36 minutes in the second group stage game while on Friday, the Indian produced another 36-minute masterclass against another Japanese superstar Akane Yamaguchi that ended 21-9 21-13.
The draw for the semifinals was made late on Friday and in the semifinal, Sindhu will be up against Chinese sensation Chen Yufei. The duo has faced off against each other a whopping four times this year, which have been split halfway between both. Their most meeting came in the French Open in October, where it was Sindhu who prevailed 21-14 21-14.
The order of play for Saturday is as follows:
Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota vs Huang Yaqiong/Yu Xiaohan (WD)
Takeshi Kamura/Keigo Sonoda vs Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (MD)
Kamilla Rytter Juhl/Christinna Pedersen vs Shiho Tanaka/Koharu Yonemoto (WD)
Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen vs Liu Cheng/Zhang Nan (MD)
Wang Yilyu/Huang Dongping vs Tang Chun Man/Tse Ying Suet (XD)
Akane Yamaguchi vs Ratchanok Intanon (WS)
Shi Yuqi vs Viktor Axelsen (MS)
Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir vs Zheng Siwei/Chen Qingchen (XD)
PV Sindhu vs Chen Yufei (WS)
Son Wan Ho vs Lee Chong Wei (MS)
