PV Sindhu assured India of a medal at the World Championships by defeating Japan's Nozomi Okuhara on Friday, a day when B Sai Praneeth, Saina Nehwal and the mixed doubles duo of Satiwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa were all knocked out in the quarterfinals.
Saina's challenge came to an end after she lost 6-21, 11-21 to Olympic champion Carolina Marin in a lopsided quarterfinal, while Praneeth later lost 12-21, 12-21 to Japan's Kenta Momota, bringing an end to India's challenge in the men's singles.
Sindhu, facing Okuhara in a repeat of the final she lost last year, defeated the Japanese 21-17, 21-19 in 58 minutes to assure India of a medal. Sindhu has now won two of her three meetings with Okuhara this year. After a close start, there was little to separate the two players, Sindhu went into the break at 11-10. After the break, Sindhu began to take control of the first game, using long lifts to push Okuhara to the back of the court before employing drop shots and short, angled forehands to draw the Japanese forward and draw an error or finish off points. After a couple of nervous errors, the Indian surged ahead with a series of smashes to win the first game.
Sindhu made a slow start to the second game, losing the first five points, but began to claw her way back in before going into the break trailing 11-8. After leveling scores at 11-11, the two players continued to win alternate points before Okuhara netted a lift at 19-19 to give Sindhu a match point, which was immediately converted after the Japanese sent her serve long.
Earlier, Rankireddy and Ponnappa's impressive run also came to an end after they lost 17-21, 10-21 to the Chinese duo of Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong in the quarterfinals.
Saina, who won a silver and bronze in the 2015 and 2017 edition respectively, struggled to get going from the outset in what was a rematch of the 2015 final. Saina had made the quarterfinals at each of the past eight Worlds but had only progressed to the semis twice.
Two-time (2014 and 2015) champion Marin was aggressive from the beginning of the match as Saina failed to make any headway in the early exchanges. Saina had a 5-4 advantage in their head-to-head before this match but this was easily the most one-sided match between the two former world no. 1s.
"Her movement was very quick today. She was moving so fast and covering the court very quickly. The kind of shots that she played, it seemed like she was suddenly very fast. Also I had a late match yesterday so to face someone so quick was difficult. I didn't understand what to do, she never gave me a chance to play my game," Saina told reporters after the match.
Marin sounded confident about going all the way in the tournament saying, "I'm doing well since the first day. I was in control today. I'm the fastest in the world, it is my strength and I have to keep doing it. I am happy to reach the semifinal. The favouite player (Tai Tzu Ying) to win the tournament lost today, so ll try to give best tomorrow against China's He Bingjiao."
There was no let up in intensity from the Spaniard in the second game as she continued to dictate the pace of play even as Saina conjured a few moments of inspiration.
Marin has been in red-hot form all tournament and her win her was reminiscent of a similarly emphatic win against Saina at the Premier Badminton League earlier this year.
Marin's down-the-line smashes were particularly lethal as she frequently dragged Saina wide with crosscourt drops or half smashes to open up space down the line.
Saina will next be in action at the Asian Games later this month.
Rankireddy and Ponnappa were the only unseeded pair left in the mixed doubles draw but the Chinese pair led from the outset and never let the Indian pair get into the match.
Zheng, who was runner-up in the same event at the Worlds in 2017, was very solid from the back court while Yaqiong was very aggressive at the net. The top-seeded Chinese pair showed very good cohesion as Zheng set up the points by mixing up the pace even as Yaqiong poached any loose offerings at the net.
Ponnappa brought all her big-match experience into play even as the teenaged Rankireddy betrayed a few nerves with a couple of service faults and overhit smashes in the opening game.
He improved as the match progressed and the Indians narrowed the lead down to one point at 17-18 in the first game but a service error from Rankireddy proved costly.
The second game was all one-way traffic as the top seeds led 11-4 at the changeover after the young Rankireddy's errors piled up. His serve troubles persisted as the Chinese combination wrapped up a comfortable win.