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New Delhi: Indian shuttler PV Sindhu delivered one of her best performances of the season to beat China’s world No. 5 Han Yue in straight games and advance to the quarterfinals of the Japan Open Super 750 badminton tournament in Tokyo on Thursday, July 16.

The two-time Olympic medallist needed just 35 minutes to register a dominating 21-16, 21-14 victory against the higher-ranked Chinese shuttler in the second-round clash. Sindhu got off to a poor start but found her rhythm midway through the first game.

She looked in complete control, hitting the shuttle crisply and controlling the rallies to take the lead. Sindhu then completely dominated the second game, taking an 8-0 lead before sealing a comfortable win. With this victory, she also improved her head-to-head record against Han to 8-1.

PV Sindhu proved once again stronger against 5th seed Han Yue🇨🇳 (8-1 H2H) & placed into her 6th QFs of this year in some dominance & fluency!👌

She will meet her familiar opponent & off court friend Nozomi Okuhara🇯🇵 at QFs who got w/o from ASY yesterday. 👍#JapanOpen2026 https://t.co/MleClcdZEo pic.twitter.com/mDQyx1zhrO

— Amit Kumar De (@AmitK98infinite) July 16, 2026

Sindhu will next take on Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara, who received a walkover following top seed An Se-young of South Korea’s withdrawal from their second-round match.

Sindhu is now the only Indian player left in the tournament after the mixed doubles duo of Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila were knocked out in the pre-quarterfinals. They fought hard against China’s Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping but suffered a 20-22, 17-21 defeat in their round-of-16 clash.

Earlier, Lakshya Sen and Ayush Shetty were also eliminated in the opening round of the tournament, while Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty retired midway through their first-round match due to a shoulder injury to Satwik.