Kuala Lumpur: P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth continued their impressive run at the Malaysia Open, progressing to the semi-finals of the women's and men's singles competition with a straight-game wins in the $700,000 world tour super 750 tournament here on Friday.
In a clash between Olympic silver and gold medallists, it was Sindhu who emerged victories with a 22-20 21-19 result in a 52-minute quarter-final match here.
The 22-year-old Sindhu, who won a silver at the Glasgow World Championship, will face world no 1 and top seed Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying on Saturday.
Earlier, fourth seed Srikanth, who won a silver medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, dumped world no 22 France's Brice Leverdez 21-18 21-14 in a 39-minute clash at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil, a suburb in Kuala Lumpur.
The Indian had also beaten the French in three games at All England Championship this year.
The 25-year-old will take on former world No. 2 and 2015 world championship bronze medallist Kento Momota, who has been in sensational form ever since making a comeback after serving a one-year ban by Japan Badminton Association for gambling at an illegal casino in 2015.
Momota clinched the Macau Open and Dutch Open last year besides reaching the finals at Canada Open. He won the 2018 Asia Badminton championship and was also unbeaten at the Thomas Cup.
Srikanth will have a tough task at hand as Momota will be extra motivated to earn back his respect as it was here two years ago that he had to concede a second round match after the news of him and compatriot Kenichi Tago gambling at an illegal casino broke out.
In the women's singles match, Sindhu started the proceedings with a sharp smash and moved to a 3-1 lead early on but Marin clawed back. Sindhu again opened a slender two-point lead which evaporated quickly.
As has been the norm, Sindhu and Marin continued to fight it out as leads changed hands too frequently.
The Indian finally grabbed a miniscule 11-10 lead at the interval after Marin failed to reach for a shot at the backline.