PV Sindhu sails into Hong Kong Open Superseries quarterfinals, Saina Nehwal exits

PV Sindhu’s match lasted for 39 minutes. (Source: File)

Second seed PV Sindhu sailed into the women’s singles quarterfinals with a comfortable win while compatriot Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Hong Kong Open Superseries on Thursday.

Sindhu, who slipped a place to be number three in the world rankings released today, defeated Japan’s Aya Ohori 21-14, 21-17 in a second round match lasting 39 minutes.

It was Sindhu’s third win over the Japanese in as many meetings. The Indian faces another Japanese, fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi, in the quarterfinals on Friday. Tenth-ranked Nehwal, however, ran out of steam to lose to China’s Chen Yufei and eighth seed 21-18, 19-21, 10-21 in a second-round match lasting an hour. The players met for the first time.

It was also curtains for India in the men’s singles after 10th-ranked HS Prannoy went down fighting to Japan’s Kazumasa Sakai 21-11, 10-21, 15-21 in a 54-minute battle. The 23-ranked Japanese got the better of Prannoy for the third time in as many matches.

Parupalli Kashyap and Sourabh Verma had lost in the opening round on Wednesday.