Sindhu advances to semis of Malaysia Masters; Srikanth out

IMAGE: World No 13 P V Sindhu avenged her round-of-32 loss to Yi Man Zhang of China at the All England Open earlier this year. Photograph: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

P V Sindhu advanced to the semi-finals of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 tournament with a hard-fought win over Yi Man Zhang of China, in Kuala Lumpur, on Friday.

Double Olympic medallist Sindhu, seeded sixth in the tournament, beat lower ranked Zhang 21-16, 13-21, 22-20 in a quarter-final match that lasted one hour and 14 minutes.

World No 13 Sindhu avenged her Round of 32 loss to Zhang, ranked 18th, at the All England Open earlier this year. She had also beaten her Chinese opponent in the same tournament last year.

Sindhu faces seventh seed and world number nine Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia in the semifinals on Saturday. Tunjung upset second seed Yi Zhi Wang of China in the quarter 21-18, 22-20.

Tunjung has been in fine form recently and Sindhu had lost to her in the Madrid Spain Masters final in straight games in April.

Sindhu will, however, go into the semi-final clash with a 7-1 head-to-head advantage over Tunjung.

However, Kidambi Srikanth lost to Indonesian qualifier Christian Adinata 21-16, 16-21, 11-21 in 57 minutes in the quarter-finals.