New Delhi: Ace Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu advanced to the quarter-finals with comfortable victories even as Kidambi Srikanth among the men crashed out of the Indian Open here on Thursday.
Defending champion and top seed 8n the women’s singles Sindhu had little trouble in dispatching Bulgaria’s Linda Zetchiri 21-10, 21-14 to set up a clash with the right seeded Beatriz Corrales of Spain, who put aside Ruthvika Shivani Gadde 21-17, 21-10.
“It was an easy match. But I made many unforced errors. I have to try different strokes,” said the fourth ranked Indian after her win.
Saina who ever since returning from her ankle injury has looked a different player, reaching the Indonesian Open finals last week, defeated Denmark’s Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt 21-12, 21-11 and will take on American fifth seed Beiwen Zhang in the quarters.
8tbwas however curtains for Kidambi Srikanth who crashed out in the second round after a shock straight set defeat against the Malaysian qualifier Iskander Zulkarnain 19-21, 17-21. Both the players was making a return from injuries, but Srikanth looked to be more rusty on the court.
“I was at par with him in both the games, but in the last few points he played really well. I am feeling good and I want to continue playing. He is crazy and he gets shuttles back from crazy positions. I am just happy to be back on court,” said the third ranked shuttler.
Meanwhile, Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth defeated Hong Kong’s Hu Yun 21-10, 21-15 tosnet up a clash with third seeded Taiwanese Chou Tien Chen. Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap, another shuttler who made a return from a series of injuries eased into the quarter-finals after defeating compatriot Shreyansh Jaiswal 21-19, 19-21, 21-12 in a closely fought battle.
He will next face China’s Qian Bin, who oversaw Kartikey Gulshan Kumar 21-17, 14-21, 21-13.
In the doubles category, the unseeded mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa defeated the third seeded Malaysian combo of Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing 21-16 15-21 23-21, to advance to their maiden quarter-finals in a major tournament. While, the men’s doubles pair of Satwik and Chirag Shetty, who reached the semifinals last week at Indonesia Masters, went down 21-13 18-21 20-22 to Chinese combo of Chai Biao and Wang Zekang.
The eighth seeded Indian duo of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy also entered the mixed doubles quarters after seeing off Malaysian-Indian pair of Yogendran Khrishnan and Prajakta Sawant 21-10 21-19 in 32 minutes. While Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy progressed to the last eight of men’s doubles with a 21-11 21-15 win over compatriots Tushar Sharma and Chandrabhusan Tripathi.