A long rally in badminton is a sight to behold. With the shuttle rebounding at break-neck speed off the racquets, it makes for a great viewing for the spectators and it can leave the best of stars darined out! The same happened during a Malaysian Masters doubles match between Malaysia’s Pearly Tan/ Thinaah Muralitharan and Rena Miyaura/ Ayako Sakuramoto of Japan in the women’s doubles quarterfinals on Thursday. The two rivals played a 211-shot rally and needless to say that it was quite a humongous effort by the badminton stars.
The rally happened in the third game with the both pairs winning one game each before that. Ultimately the Malaysian pair won the rally. The Malaysian stars also won the match 21-17, 18-21, 21-19.
Sit back, relax and enjoy this monumental rally !@HSBC_Sport#HSBCbadminton #BWFWorldTour #MalaysiaMasters2023 pic.twitter.com/o0Anh10ACG
— BWF (@bwfmedia) May 25, 2023
Star Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy advanced to the women’s and men’s singles semifinals of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 tournament with hard-fought wins over their respective opponents on Friday. While double Olympic medallist Sindhu, seeded sixth in the tournament, beat lower ranked Yi Man Zhang of China 21-16, 13-21, 22-20, Prannoy earned a 25-23, 18-21, 21-13 win over Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in the quarterfinals.
Sindhu faces seventh seed and world number nine Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia in the semifinals on Saturday. Tunjung upset second seed Yi Zhi Wang of China in the quarterfinals 21-18, 22-20.
Tunjung has been in fine form recently and Sindhu had lost to her in the Madrid Spain Masters final in straight games in April. The Indian will, however, go into the semifinals with a 7-1 head-to-head advantage over Tunjung.
World number nine Prannoy faces qualifier Christian Adinata, ranked 57, of Indonesia, who beat Kidambi Srikanth 16-21, 21-16, 21-11 in another quarterfinals, in the semifinals of Saturday.
Prannoy has never played against the 21-year-old Adinata, who began playing at the senior level just last year.
With PTI inputs
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