Sindhu sails through; Vaishnavi, Ashmita enter maiden Senior National semis

Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu sailed into the last four stage, while Nagpur's Vaishnavi Bhale and Ashmita Chaliha of Assam showed superb resilience to book their maiden semifinal spots on a dramatic day at the 83rd Senior National Badminton Championship here Thursday.

On a day when three pre-quarterfinals were postponed due to uneven court surface at the Assam Badminton Academy, Sindhu went about her business as usual, beating Riya Mookerjee 21-16 21-7 in 28 minutes to progress to the semifinals.

The top seed from Hyderabad, a former champion, had opened her campaign with a 21-11 21-13 win over Nagpur's Malvika Bansod in the morning.

Vaishnavi, who had won the All India ranking tournament 2015 and finished runners-up at 2016, dug deep to eke out a hard-fought 19-21 22-20 21-11 win over third seed Shriyanshi Pardeshi.

The maximum cheer was reserved for local sensation Ashmita, who kept her cool in two successive thrillers to set up a semifinal clash against Sindhu.

The ...