China Open: Srikanth, Satwik-Chirag enter pre-quarterfinals

Indian ace Kidambi Srikanth progressed to the pre-quarterfinals with an easy victory but HS Prannoy exited after a straight-game loss in the opening round of the China Open World Tour Super 750 tournament here on Wednesday.

Fifth seed Srikanth, ranked 9th, saw off France's Lucas Corvee 21-12 21-16 in 35 minutes to set up a clash with Indonesia's Tommy Sugiarto.

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India's men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also entered the second round with a stunning 23-21 24-22 win over world no 6 Danish pair of Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding in a 53-minute hard-fought clash.

However, Prannoy lost 11-21 14-21 to Asian Games gold medallist Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in another men's singles opener.

There was more bad news in store for India as young Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka went down 12-21 16-21 to Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand in a women's singles match.

In the mixed doubles, the Indian duo of Satwiksairaj and Ashwini Ponnappa fought hard before losing 21-18 19-21 17-21 to seventh seeded Malaysian combination of Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying.

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On way to his third win over world no 42 Corvee, Srikanth displayed good command over his game as he erased an initial 1-4 deficit to lead 11-7 at the break of the opening game. He then extended his stranglehold over his rival to pocket the game comfortably.

In the second game, Corvee showed fighting spirit for a while as he moved neck and neck with Srikanth till 7-7. After that the Indian grabbed a 11-9 advantage at the interval and then kept increasing his lead to eventually shut the door on the French.

On Tuesday, Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu entered the pre-quarterfinals.