Spain Masters 2023: PV Sindhu reach quarter-finals; Kidambi Srikanth beats Sai Praneeth

Madrid: Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth moved to the singles quarter-finals of the Madrid Spain Masters badminton tournament with straight game wins in Madrid on Thursday. Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu dispatched Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonasia 21-16 21-14 in a little over half an hour to enter her first quarter-final in 2023. World number 21 Srikanth pulled off a 21-15 21-12 second round win over compatriot B Sai Praneeth. Second seed Sindhu has been struggling for form this season since returning to action following a long injury layoff. It is the first time this year that the 27-year-old former world champion has crossed the second round. Sindhu, who has dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since November 2016, will take on 25-year-old Danish Mia Blichfeldt in the last eight stage of the Super 300 tournament. While world No. 21 Srikanth, seeded fifth, has a tough contest ahead of him as the former world No 1 is pitted against top seed Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in the quarter-finals. Nishimoto was handed a walkover by France’s Arnaud Merkle in their second-round contest. Kiran George and Priyanshu Rajawat crashed out of the men’s singles event after suffering second round defeats. While George went down to Denmark’s Magnus Johannesen 17-21 12-21 in 31 minutes, Rajat was outplayed 14-21 15-21 by eight seed Toma Junior Popov of France. Later in the day, Aakarshi Kashyap lost her women’s singles pre-quarterfinals match to Japan’s Natsuki Nidaira 13-21 8-21. Malvika Bansod gave a walkover to top seeded Spanish Carolina Marin, while Ashmita Chaliha was beaten 15-21 15-21 by Yeo Jia Min in her second round match. Sameer Verma lost his men’s singles Round of 16 match, going down 15-21 14-21 to Japanese second seed Kanta Tsuneyama. In men’s doubles, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila lost to Japanese duo of Shuntaro Mezaki and Haruya Nishida 16-21 20-22, while the pairing of Sikki Reddy and Arathi Sara Sunil went down to Japan’s Rui Hirokami and Yuna Kato 12-21 13-21. Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.