Saina, Sindhu progress into quarter-finals of Badminton World Championships; Srikanth ousted

Olympics medallist Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu progressed into the women’s singles quarter-finals but the highest ranked Indian men shuttler Kidambi Srikanth crashed out in the last-16 of the Badminton World Championships on Thursday.

Saina, who had won a bronze in the last edition outclassed former champion Ratchanok Inthanon of Thailand 21-16, 21-19 in straight sets to set up a meeting with two-time World Champion Carolina Marin of Spain. World No. 7 Srikanth’s chances, however, came to an end after he went down 18-21, 18-21 against Malaysian Daren Liew in a match that lasted just 41 minutes.

Sindhu beat Sung-Ji-Hyun 21-20, 21-18 in straight sets to progress.

The 2013 winner Inthanon was no match in front of the Indian, who faced little difficulty in overcoming her. Saina led 11-8 at the break of the first set and didn’t look back from there, with four consecutive unforced errors from the Thai helping her to seal the opening game.

Also Read: Sindhu, Srikanth advance into pre-quarterfinals of Badminton World Championships; Prannoy bows out

It was the same story in the second set, with Nehwal once again leading 11-8 at mid-break. She then increased the advantage to five points, but Inthanon bounced back to reduce the deficit to just one point at 18-19. It, however, came of little help in the end as another consecutive unforced error gifted the set to Nehwal, who advanced into the quarters.

“It is a very good win. She is known for a deceptive game. The second game was going my way, but suddenly she played some difficult strokes, she was everywhere and made it 19-19. At that point, Gopi sir played a big role. He told me what to do and I followed that and the game turned in my favour,” she said after her victory quoted PTI.

B Sai Praneeth also advanced into the quarter-finals after beating Hans-Kristian Vittinghus 21-13, 21-11 early on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Indian mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy showed great composure to bounce back from a game down to see off the Malaysian combo of Goh Soon Huat and Shevon Jemie Lai.

The pair, who created history by winning the mixed team gold at the Commonwealth Games beat the world number seven in doubles 20-22, 21-14, 21-6 in a 59-minute clash to advance into the quarter-finals.