Indian badminton ace PV Sindhu stormed into the semifinals of the French Open 2021 Badminton with a straight-game win over Thailand's Busanan Ongbamrungphan on Friday. She, seeded third, will now cross swords with Japan's world number 15 Sayaka Takahashi on Saturday in the much-hyped semifinal.
However, it is not going to be easy for Sindhu given that she hasn't been in the best of forms lately despite having put up a good show at the tournament so far. Here's all that you need to know about the high-stakes match between two of the world's best shuttlers.
Good Show
Sindhu will go into the semifinal after convincing defeating Ongbamrungphan on Friday. She won 21-14 21-14 against the eighth seeded in just 38 minutes to extend her dominating head-to-head record against the Thai to 14-1.
She had also given Ongbamrungphan a drubbing just a week earlier at the Denmark Open. Prior to that the reigning world champion, defeated Denmark's Line Christophersen, ranked 24th in the world 21-19, 21-9 on late Thursday night to enter the quarters.
On the other hand, Takahashi stunned 2nd seed Ratachanok Inathon of Thailand with a convincing win. Earlier, Takahashi also got the better of another Indian player Saina Nehwal in the opening round when the India left the match mid-way due to injury.
However, given her past performance and world ranking, Sindhu will go into the semifinal as the favorite but is expected to face stiff competition from Takahashi.
Interestingly, both Sindhu and Takahashi are yet to drop a set in the tournament.
When and Where
The two players have met each other five times. Sindhu holds the edge with three victories while Takahashi won twice including the previous fixture at Indonesia Masters in January 2020. Takahashi had defeated Sindhu in their previous battle 2:1 at Indonesia Masters in three games.
The French Open 2021 Women's semi finals will be held at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin in Paris, France. The high-adrenaline match will be played on Saturday (October 30) at 2 pm IST.
How to Watch
The match will be broadcast live on Star Sport 3 in India. In the UK, the match will be aired on BT Sport at 9:30 am GMT.
CCTV will broadcast the match live in China at 4:30 pm CST Asia
How to Watch Online
Those who want to watch the match online in India, Disney+Hotstar will livestream the match at 2 pm IST.
In the United States and Australia livestreaming will be done on Olympics.com. The timings for US is 3:30 am CT, while for Australia it will be 6:30 pm AEST.
