Sandhu reached into semi final, assures bronze to India

New Delhi: PV Sindhu assured India of at least a bronze medal in the World Badminton Championships on Friday defeating former World No. 1 Shixian Wang in the women’s singles quarterfinals event.

Prakash Padukone won the men’s singles bronze in 1983 at Copenhagen while Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa won another bronze in the women’s doubles event in the last edition at London in 2011.

Parupalli Kashyap, who was also playing at the adjacent court, played out of his skin but still could not get across world number three Du Pengyu of China. His gallant fight ended with a 21-16 20-22 15-21 loss in an energy-sapping contest which lasted one hour and 15 minutes.