PV Sindhu. (AFP Photo)

NEW DELHI: Defending champion PV Sindhu defeated third seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in straight games on Saturday to book her spot in the summit clash of the India Open Super 500. The top seed Indian shuttler overcame the Thai's challenge 21-13, 21-15 in a 48-minute long semi-final contest.

Sindhu will face Zhang Beiwen of USA in the final on Sunday. Fifth seed Beiwen defeated Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi , sixth seed, in three games 14-21, 21-12, 21-19 in the other semi-final.

Intanon, who led Sindhu 4-2 in head-to-head contest before the tie, raced to 2-0 lead early in the first game and was on 3-1 when the contest took a sharp turn. Home favourite Sindhu changed gear and totally outclassed Intanon in next few minutes and won ten consecutive points to take 11-3 lead at the mid-game break.

Sindhu extended the lead to 13-3 before Intanon finally able to win a point and made it 4-13. But the game has moved on from the hand of the 22-year-old Intanon as Sindhu won it 21-13 comfortably in 20 minutes.

The second game started on even keel and the duo exchanged points regularly to be at 5-5. Sindhu started gaining momentum soon afterward and took 11-7 lead at the break.

From there on, Sindhu kept her advantage and from 17-14, she raced to 20-14 for her first match point of the contest. Intanon pulled one back to make it 15-20, before Sindhu wrapped it up 21-15.

Earlier, Indian mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy lost to Denmark's Mathias Christiansen and Christinna Pedersen in the semi-finals.

Eighth seeded Indian pair, who had reached the semi-finals of the Japan Open last year, went down fighting 16-21, 19-21 against the fifth seeded Danish pair, who reached the finals at China Open and Hong Kong Open after starting as a pair at the Denmark Open last year.

