Badminton World Tour Finals Day 3 LIVE - PV Sindhu in action - Scores, Updates, Results, Blog
Catch all the badminton action LIVE from the final day of group stage clashes. Follow here.
PV Sindhu will be in action next in the semifinal on Saturday. (Source: BWF)
Welcome to the live blog of The Bridge from Day 3 of the Badminton World Tour Finals 2021!
Although India had qualified 7 shuttlers for the prestigious season-ending tournament, only 2 of them - PV Sindhu and by a stroke of fluke, Lakshya Sen, have been able to enter the semi-finals of the event. All other shuttlers - Kidambi Srikanth, Ashwini Ponnappa-N Sikki Reddy, and the men's doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty haven't been able to qualify. While Srikanth did win his opener against Toma Junior Popov, he lost haplessly against Thai youngster Kunlavut Vitidsarn and still has a small window of qualifying for the knockouts. The pair of Ashwini-Sikki could win just one of their three group stage matches while Satwik-Chirag lost their opener and pulled out citing injury trouble before facing off against The Minions.
Today marks the final day of group stage action where the Indian shuttlers will contest for one last mandatory hurray. Sindhu lost her final group match and will face Akane Yamaguchi in the semifinal on Saturday. Lakshya Sen, meanwhile, will be up against Viktor Axelsen in his semifinal.
Follow all LIVE updates here:
SF MS Draw World Tour Finals 2021:
Who will go to the Final?
Pornpawee Chochuwong vs An Se Young
Akane Yamaguchi vs P. V. Sindhu
Viktor Axelsen vs Lakshya Sen
Lee Zii Jia vs Kunlavut Vitidsarn
That's the end of the last group match for Sindhu. She loses the third game 14-21.
21 19 21 Pornpawee CHOCHUWONG
12 21 14 V. Sindhu PUSARLA
Sindhu will face either Pornpawee Chochuwong or Akane Yamaguchi in the SemiFinal tomorrow.
A few long rallies in the third game, with both players tiring at the end of this long match in the middle of an intense badminton session. Sindhu drops off pace, loses 4 consecutive points as we get to the halfway mark of the third game.
Sindhu lost a 4-point lead in this game before making a comeback towards the end of the game. And it's the Indian who has the first game point opportunity. And seals it at 21-19. One-game all in this match. 26 minutes this game took, 9 more minutes than the 1st game.
We head to a deciding third game.
A close fight from both players in the second game. Chochuwong edges ahead at 18-17.
A series of shots falling wide outside the court by Sindhu does the job for Chochuwong who bags the first game. Sindhu now has her task cut out.
Quick thinking by Sindhu as she almost replicates Chochuwong's style to win a point playing cross-court smashes.
Stunning angles and crisp smashes by Chochuwong keep piling up the points for her as she leads 17-9.
Two quick points by Sindhu as she tries to exploit the points playing closer to the net area. She closes the gap at 8-11.
Chochuwong has a comfortable five-point lead at the mid-game interval after she delivers a spectacular smash.