PV Sindhu marches into finals of Hong Kong Open, beats Thailand's Ratchanok Intanon

Kowloon: Rio Olympic silver-medallist PV Sindhu continued her rich vein of form as she outplayed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in straight games to book her place in the finals of the women's singles event of the Hong Kong Open Super Series here on Saturday.

The 22-year-old Hyderabadi shuttler, who is seeded second in the tournament, didn't even break sweat throughout the match as she fended off sixth-seeded Intanon 21-17, 21-17 in a one-sided semi-final contest that lasted 43 minutes.

With this win, Sindhu has now set up a summit showdown clash against top-seed Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei.

Yesterday, the second-seed had cemented her place in the last-four of the tournament after clinching a comfortable 21-12, 21-19 win over her Japanese opponent Akane Yamaguchi in a one-sided quarter-final contest that lasted just 37 minutes.

It was Sindhu's fourth triumph over Yamaguchi in their last six meetings.

It should be noted that Sindhu remains India's only hope in the tournament after Saina Nehwal, HS Prannoy crashed out in the second round, while Kidambi Srikanth gave his second consecutive Super Series tournament of the year a miss.