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With her 21-14, 21-9 win over the fifth seeded Chinese Sun Yu in the quarter-finals of the 2017 BWF World Championships at Glasgow, Scotland on Friday, the Rio Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu achieved yet another feat. This was her fifth consecutive victory over a Chinese shuttler in five meetings at the premier global event.
Scalps two formidable Chinese on debut in China
Sindhu started her imperious winning streak against the formidable Chinese right on her glorious debut in 2013 when she was just 18.
It is interesting to note that the World Championships was staged at Guangzhou in China that year. Even the home crowd and the loud support could not deter the fearless teenager, who single-handedly accounted for two of the greatest Chinese female shuttlers - second seed Wang Yihan in the third round and the seventh seed Wang Shixian in the quarter-finals.
Both the wins over the two former World No. 1s were achieved in straight games. Against Yihan, she emerged a 21-18, 23-21 winner and against Shixian, she ground out a 21-18, 21-17 win.
With that sensational debut, she announced herself to the world in style after becoming the first female singles shuttler from India to win a World Championships medal as she came back with a bronze.
Those two victories validated the Pullela Gopichand protégé’s hunger and desire to perform at the highest level of the sport and that she was destined for bigger things.
Notches comeback win over Chinese
The very next year, she repeated her heroics against the Chinese again although she had to work extremely hard that year. In the quarter-finals, she came back from a game down to prevail over the second seed Shixian Wang, 19-21, 21-19. 21-15.
That gritty win gave her the second medal from the World Championships which too was a bronze.
Beats the reigning Olympic champion
2015 was the only year when the fast-rising Sindhu returned empty-handed from this global event but not before asserting her supremacy over the Chinese again. She brought forth her power-packed game to edge the reigning Olympic champion Li Xuerui, 21-17, 14-21, 21-17 in the third round.
At the ongoing 2017 World Championships in Glasgow, she thoroughly dominated her quarter-final match and easily swatted aside the fifth seed Sun Yu in 39 minutes, extending her blemish-free record against the Chinese.
It was a ruthless show from the 22-year-old who proved once again that she is never afraid of the big stage. Time and again, the way she manages to rise to the occasion against the most feared nation in the sport of badminton, only evokes awe and reverence.
Chinese up next
And once more, as if it was in the script, Sindhu has to cross yet another Chinese barrier to make it through to her maiden final at the World Championships. The junior world champion Chen Yufei boasts of having won their most recent showdown in the first round of the Malaysia Open this year.
But with this being the World Championships, the Indian’s impeccable record might have the final word.
