Arctic Open: PV Sindhu sails into quarter-finals; Kidambi Srikanth, Kiran George bow out

Vantaa: Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu sailed into the quarterfinals of the women’s singles event of the Arctic Open Super 500 badminton tournament, but it was curtains for Kidambi Srikanth in men’s singles here on Thursday. Sindhu, seeded eighth, took just 38 minutes to breeze past Chinese Taipei’s Wen Chi Hsu 21-11, 21-10. Sindhu will next play Thuy Linh Nguyen of Vietnam. However, the tournament ended for Srikanth and Kiran George in men’s singles. While Srikanth lost 15-21, 12-21 against seventh seed Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan, George was shown the door by fourth seed Lu Guang Zu of China 10-21 20-22. While the Indian challenge ended in men’s singles, Aakarshi Kashyap survived in the women’s singles event and will take on fifth seeded Chinese Wang Zhi Yi later in the day. The lone Indian pair in women’s doubles, Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa also failed to progress to the quarterfinals, losing 19-21, 19-21 against the French duo of Margot Lambert and Anne Tran.