Sindhu enters semis

 World Championship silver medallist P V Sindhu beat Chen Yufei of China in straight games to storm into the women’s singles semifinal of the French Super Series here on Friday.

This is Sindhu’s first-ever last-four appearence in the tournament. The Olympic silver medallist took just 41 minutes to brush aside the challenge of World No 10 Yufei 21-14, 21-14 in the quarterfinals.

The Indian had lost to the Chinese at the Denmark Open last week.

Sindhu will next play the winner of another quarterfinal between third seed Sung Ji Hyun of Korea and Japanese fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi.

Earlier, HS Prannoy dumped Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Vittinghus in straight games to progress to the men’s singles quarterfinals late last on Thursday.

Prannoy took just 31 minutes to see off Vittinghus 21-11, 21-12 to set up a clash with 2016 Australian Open finalist Jeon Hyeok-jin of Korea.

Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth 13-21, 17-21 to Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto.

Young Indian doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, meanwhile, notched up a stunning 22-20, 12-21, 21-19 win over World No 6 Danish combo of Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding to reach their second quarter-final of the season.