Asia Badminton Championships: PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal Sameer Verma continue impressive run to enter quarter-finals

Wuhan: Ace Indian women shuttlers Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu registered straight-game wins to sail into the quarter-finals of the Asia Badminton Championship on Thursday. London Olympic bronze medallist Saina, who was the last Indian to take the court on Thursday, needed just 38 minutes to get the better of Kim Ga Eun of Korea to enter the last eight round of the women’s singles event. [caption id=“attachment_6443471” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] PV Sindhu in action at the Singapore Open 2019. AFP[/caption] Saina, seeded seventh, has a tough next encounter as she will be up against third seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan. The other Indian in fray, Sindhu, seeded fourth, took just 33 minutes to beat Indonesia’s Choirunnisa 21-15 21-19 in another second round women’s singles match. The World No 6 will next play the unseeded Cai Yanyan of China in the quarterfinals. Besides the female duo, Sameer Verma too continued his impressive run by progressing to the men’s singles quarter-finals. Sameer brushed aside Hong Kong’s Ng Ka Long Angus 21-12 21-19 in his second round encounter. But a Herculean task awaits Sameer in the last eight round as he will clash with second seed Shi Yuqi of China. Among other Indians, mixed doubles pair of Utkarsh Arora and Karishma Wadkar crashed out in the second round after losing 21-10 21-15 to Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja of Indonesia. There was another defeat in store in the mixed doubles as the combination of Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan too perished in the second round after losing 10-21 9-21 against second seeded Chinese duo of Yilyu Wang and Dongping Huang.