New Delhi: It was a mixed day for the hosts as Olympics medallist PV Sindhu cruised into the semi-finals but Saina Nehwal crushed out of the $350,000 Indian Open Badminton Tournament here on Friday.
Facing Beatriz Corrales in the quarter-finals, world no 3 Sindhu took just 35 minutes to defeat the Spaniard 21-12, 19-21, 21-11 taking another step closer to defending her title.
The Olympic silver-medallist dished out an attacking game to win the opening set without much sweat, but Corrales bounced back in the second. Sindhu then used all her experience with sheer-class to seal the set and the game.
World no 12 Saina Nehwal however looked sluggish and was out of sorts going down to America’s Beiwen Zhang 10-21, 13-21 in straight sets.
Saina who reached the Indonesian Open final last week made too may unforced errors and was sluggish in her movements against the 11th ranked American. She went down almost without a fight in the opening set and although played much better in the second, Zhang held on to eventually win the game and advance to the semi-finals.
Sindhu will next square-off against 2013 world champion Ratchanok Inthanon of Thailand in the semi-finals.
It was also curtains for Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap and B Sai Praneeth, both of whom suffered straight sets defeat to bow out of the tournament.
While Kashyap lost 16-21, 18-21 to China’s Qiao Bin in the quarter-finals, Praneeth stood no chance against the third seed Taiwanese Chou Tien Chen goin down 15-21, 13-21 to crush out.
In the mixed doubles category, the pair of N Sikki Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra, who had reached the semi-finals at Japan Open last year, entered the final four after beating Chinese combo of Han Chengkai and Cao Tong Wei 21-8, 21-13.