Birmingham: Indian badminton star P V Sindhu edged out Japan's Akane Yamaguchi 16-21, 21-16, 21-19 to enter the All England Open semifinals here on Friday.
Sindhu, the lone Indian remaining in the tournament, bounced back after losing the opening game.
The Rio Olympics silver medallist also matched her best performance in the prestigious event. The 25-year-old had made it to the semifinals in 2018. She will clash with Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong on Saturday for a place in the final.
Saina Nehwal's runner-up finish in 2015 is the best performance by an Indian woman in the tournament.
Earlier, Lakshya Sen crashed out after losing to Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands 17-21, 21-16, 17-21 in the quarterfinals.
The match, which lasted 55 minutes, saw the end of Indian challenge in men's singles.
The women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also bowed out of the tournament following their defeat in straight games to Netherlands' Selena Piek and Cheryl Seinen in the quarterfinals.
The world No. 30 Indian duo went down 22-24, 12-21 to 24th-ranked Selena and Cheryl in 39 minutes.
Ashwini and Sikki had defeated 13th ranked Bulgarian sisters Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva 21-17, 21-10 in just 33 minutes in the second round on Thursday night.
World No. 10 men's doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, seeded sixth, had crashed out of the event after losing 16-21, 21-11, 17-21 to Denmark's Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen in the second round.
It was their second consecutive loss to the world No. 13 combine, having lost to them at Swiss Open earlier this month.
In the men's singles, Sameer Verma too suffered a second successive loss to third seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark, going down 22-20, 21-10 in the second round.
The mixed pairing of Dhruv Kapila and Meghana Jakkampudi also bowed out after losing 19-21, 8-21 to Niclas Nohr and Amalie Magelund of Denmark.
Caljouw, who had defeated Sen once before, claimed the first game 21-17 in 17 minutes. Sen, 19, bounced back in the second game, opening up a lead of 11-6 and later sealing it 21-16 to stay alive in the contest.
World No. 36 Caljouw, however, won the last game 21-17 to clinch the match.
(With inputs from PTI)
