Hong Kong Open: PV Sindhu beats Akane Yamaguchi, sets up semi-final date with Ratchanok Intanon

New Delhi: World number two PV Sindhu defeated Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in straight games to enter women's singles semi-final of the Hong Kong Open Super Series on Friday.

Sindhu, 22, played took 37 minutes to beat the fifth-seeded player 21-12, 21-19 in a rematch of the French Open semi-final, which the Japanese won in straight games 21-14, 21-9.

In their sixth meeting, Sindhu started the match strongly and led the graph throughout to a comfortable win. But the second game witnessed a close encounter and the Japanese girl dominated after leading 8-7.

At one point, Sindhu was trailing 12-7, 18-16. But the Rio Olympics silver medallist won four straight points to jump to a 20-18 lead.

The Indian shuttler will now take on sixth-seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, who defeated Michelle Li of Canada 21-14, 21-16 in the quarters.

This will be their sixth meeting, with Intanon leading the head-to-head record 4-2. In their last meeting, at 2016 Malaysia Open, the Thai shuttler beat Sindhu in straight games 21-7, 21-8.

Sindhu's wins came in India Open 2013 and Korea Open 2015.

Sindhu is the lone Indian left in the tournament.

In another semi-final, world number one Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan will take on third seed Sung Ji-hyun of South Korea. Both the players defeated Chinese players, Yufei Chen 21-15, 23-21 and Bingjiao He 21-15, 13-21, 21-15 in their respective quarter-final matches.

Yesterday, Sindhu defeated Aya Ohori of Japan 21-14, 21-17 in 39 minutes. But Tenth-ranked Saina Nehwal ran out of steam to lose to China's Chen Yufei 21-18, 19-21, 10-21 in a second-round match which lasted an hour. It was their first-ever meeting.

Thursday also witnessed India's men's campaign ending with the defeat of 10th-ranked HS Prannoy to Japan's Kazumasa Sakai 21-11, 10-21, 15-21 in a 54-minute battle. The 23-ranked Japanese got the better of Prannoy for the third time in as many matches.

Parupalli Kashyap and Sourabh Verma had already lost in the opening round.