Bali: Top Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and B Sai Praneeth advanced to the quarterfinals, but former champion Kidambi Srikanth emerged early here in the second round of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 tournament early on Thursday.
Sindhu, two-time Olympic medalist, barely sweated around the second round match 21-12,21-18 against world no. 26, to win Germany’s Yvonne Li in 37 minutes at the $ 850,000 event. In the quarterfinals for women’s singles, the reigning world champion, third seeded, will face South Korea’s Sim Yujin.
Praneeth repulsed a fierce battle of France’s world number 70 Christo Popov and won 21-17,14-21,21-19 in a grueling match that lasted an hour and 23 minutes. The world’s number 16 Indian will next meet Olympic champion and former world no. Viktor Axelsen from Denmark.
The second seeded Axelsen, a world champion, ended Srikanth’s campaign and beat him 21-14,21-18 in 37 minutes. The sixth seeded men pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also survived an angst against Korea’s Kang Minhyuk and Seo Seungjae, with 21-15.19-21,23-21 in an exciting match to also make the final eight.
The Indian pair, in 11th place, will take on the Malaysian combination of Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin. Against Li for the first time, world no. 7 Sindhu from the very beginning completely in control. Such was her dominance that the two-time Olympic medalist took the first race with ease and won seven consecutive points in a row.
Source: Telangana Today