PV Sindhu enters quarter-final of Singapore Open Badminton

Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu advanced to the women's singles quarterfinals of the USD 355,000 Singapore Open with a straight-game win over Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt in Singapore on Thursday. Fourth-seeded Sindhu took 39 minutes to get the better of world number 22 Mia 21-13 21-19, her second straight win over the Danish girl, who had clinched the Spain Masters this year. World number 6 Sindhu will next face China's Cai Yanyan, a BWF World Junior Championships bronze medallist. While Sindhu led throughout the first game after opening up a 3-0 advantage, the Indian was locked in a tight battle with Mia in the second till 8-8 and was trailing 11-15 at one stage. However, Sindhu managed to claw back 17-17 and then nosed ahead to seal the issue in her favour. Sindhu had reached the semifinals at the India Open last month.

Sixth seed Saina Nehwal too tamed another Indonesian in Yulia Yosephin Susanto 21-16 21-11, to book her place in the next round. Saina, who won a bronze in the 2012 London Olympics, will next look to avenge her first-round loss at Malaysia Open to Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong when she faces her in the second round. Chochuwong beat young Indian Mugdha Agrey 21-6 21-8 in another match.

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Sixth seed Kidambi Srikanth, who had reached the finals at India Open, defeated Thailand's Sitthikom Thammasin 21-17 21-18 in a 41-minute match. He will next lock horns with Denmark's Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus. 2014 Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap, who had reached the semifinals of the India Open last month, continued his good run with a 21-19 21-14 win over world number 28 Rasmus Gemke of Denmark 21-19 21-14 to set up a clash with Olympic champion Chen Long of China. Sameer Verma defeated Thailand's Suppanyu Avihingsanon 21-14 21-6 to square up against China's Lu Guangzu.

HS Prannoy eked out an 11-21 21-16 21-18 win over France's Brice Leverdez. The Indian will meet top seed and world no 1 Kento Momota of Japan next. Momota survived a scare against 2017 champion B Sai Praneeth, who put up a stiff resistance before going down 21-19 14-21 20-22 to the reigning Japanese World champion. Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy also progressed to the mixed doubles second round event after beating Arjun M R and K Maneesha 21-18-21-7 in an all-Indian contest.

However, it was curtains for India in the opening round of the men's doubles competition. The pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy lost to qualifiers Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Kean Hean Loh of Singapore 13-21 17-21. The mixed doubles pair of Saurabh Sharma and Anoushka Parikh too exited in the opening round after a 12-21 12-21 defeat at the hands of third-seeded Thai pair of Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai. The Chinese Taipei pair of Lu Ching Yao and Lee Chia Hsin ended the campaign of Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan 21-12 21-15.

HIGHLIGHTS

• PV Sindhu defeated Mia Blichfeldt for the second consecutive time.
• HS Prannoy will now meet World No.1 Kento Momota.
• Sindhu had reached the semi-final of the Indian Open.