Dubai: Indian sensation PV Sindhu is hoping to ride on some fans’ support and end her season on a high at the 2017 BWF Dubai World Superseries Finals being played at the Hamdan Sports Complex.

Goaded on by a few hundred supporters from the stands, the Indian silver medalist at the 2016 Rio Games and 2017 Glasgow World Championship, Sindhu sealed her spot at the top of Group A with three wins out of three following a dominant 21-9, 21-13 result against the top-ranked Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, who ended second in the group on Friday.

Sindhu and Akane were joined by Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand and China’s Chen Yufei from Group B and the names of the four players were to go in a pot later in the night to decide who plays whom in Saturday’s semi-finals.

“I am happy with the way I’ve played here so far this week. These were three good games in three days and hopefully I will be able to continue with this form in the semi-finals on Saturday,” Sindhu saied.

“The crowd played a crucial role and I would like to thank them for their support. I hope the fans turn up on Saturday and push me on just like they’ve done in the past,” the 22-year-old Hyderabad girl added.

Sindhu has enjoyed a truly successful season with winner’s trophies at the Yonex Sunrise India Open and the Victor Korea Open and also finished runner-up at last month’s Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Open. “It gives me a lot of confidence and all has gone well for me till now. I am at the top of my game and it doesn’t matter who I am drawn to play against tomorrow,” the Indian said.

Kidambi Srikanth, last year’s singles semi-finalist and India’s second entry, who had already bowed out on Thursday night following his second successive loss here, was tied 1-1 to so far unbeaten Chinese player Shi Yuqi in a late night match on Friday.

Lee Chong Wei from Malaysia topped Group A – whitled down to three following the late withdrawal of China’s Chen Long – despite losing to Son Wan Ho of South Korea in three games 21-13, 20-22, 15-21 later on Friday. The result, however, played a crucial part for the top-ranked Korean as he eased into the last four at the cost of Hong Kong’s Ng Ka Long Angus.

Group B was pretty simple with Shi Yuqui of China taking the top spot following three wins and was joined by defending champion Viktor Axelsen after the Dane got the better of Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen 21-16, 14-21, 21-15 earlier in the evening.

Earlier in the morning, Chinese teen Chen Yufei grabbed a semi-final spot from defending champion Tai Tzu Ying with a hard-fought 21-18, 13-21, 21-18 win over Ratchanok Intanon. Although Tai later beat Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun 21-17, 21-11 in the last Group B match, she finished behind Intanon and Chen on countback (the difference between games won and games lost) and miss out.

A second defending champion to bow out was the Chinese women’s doubles pair of Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan following their second defeat in Group A. Japanese Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto topped the group leaving China’s Huang Yaqiong and Yu Xiaohan in second to complete the semi-final.

Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota was the second pair from Japan qualifying after they topped Group B leaving Denmark’s 2016 Rio Games silver medallists Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl in second place.

The semi-finals will be played today from 10am-3pm and 4pm- 9pm. The finals will be played on Sunday from 1pm -8pm.