Double Olympic medalist PV Sindhu continued her brilliant performance by defeating compatriot Anmol Kharab in straight games in the semi-finals of the HiLo Open Super 500 badminton tournament on Saturday (31 October) to reach the final for the second consecutive week. Sindhu, who reached the title match in the French Open Super 750 badminton tournament last week, defeated Anmol, ranked 53rd in the world ranking, 21-13, 21-16 in a one-sided match that lasted 32 minutes. Now Sindhu will face the challenge of Denmark's Line Hoymark Kjerfelt in the final.
Kyerfelt defeated Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong 8-21, 21-19, 28-26 in the second semi-final that lasted one hour and 22 minutes. 19 year old Anmol had reached the semi-finals of the Super 500 tournament for the second time in her career. Earlier, he had made it to the last-4 of the Arctic Open last year. The two Indian players had previously faced each other in the Syed Modi India International in 2024, in which Sindhu had won in straight games.
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Anmol did not fare well in front of Sindhu.
Anmol had no match against Sindhu's aggressive game, accurate shots at the net and varied strokes. Anmol, a member of the Indian team that won the gold medal in the 2024 Asia Team Championship, failed to put pressure on her experienced opponent. In the first game, Sindhu had some trouble testing Anmol's long shot and due to losing a few points, the youngster took an early lead and took the score to 4-2. Anmol also hit a brilliant cross-court drop shot but she was not able to put sustained pressure on her experienced opponent.
Sindhu soon made a comeback on the basis of aggressive play and accurate shots at the net. The 31-year-old Indian player made great use of his experience and stroke variety to dominate the match. She was leading 11-9 at the intermission of the first game. After this, Sindhu scored seven game points continuously and won the first game when Anmol hit out the return.
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Anmol lost after taking lead in the second game also
After changing ends in the second game, Anmol once again took a 4-2 lead but Sindhu made the score in her favor by hitting two good shots in a row. Anmol made the score 8-8 with a brilliant dribble shot at the net and Sindhu also took a lead of 9-8 when she hit a shot at the net. However, his game clearly lacked the accuracy and consistency required to maintain pressure. Due to another mistake at the net, Sindhu got a slight lead of one point till the intermission.
There was a tough competition between the two players till the score was 15-15. Sindhu started gaining the lead after this. He took a lead of 17-15 with a brilliant drop shot. Two more mistakes by Anmol gave Sindhu four match points. He converted the first match point with an accurate backward return and entered the final.