Day 3 report: Indian stars Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu registered contrasting wins to enter the third round of the men’s and women’s singles at the Badminton World Championships on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_3972433” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]
PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal. AFP[/caption] Srikanth registered a hard-fought win over Pablo Abian of Spain while Sindhu had a much easier day in office, easing to a straight games victory over Fitriani of Indonesia. The fifth-seeded Srikanth needed more than an hour to clinch a 21-15, 12-21, 21-14 victory over his unseeded opponent. He will face another unseeded opponent in American Daren Liew in the next round. The American defeated Misha Zilberman of Israel 21-16, 21-16 in the second round. The first game was a closely fought see-saw affair before Srikanth clinched four back-to-back points to reach game point at 20-13. Although the Spaniard managed to reduce the deficit, it was not enough to prevent the Indian from taking the opening game. Abian made a strong comeback in the second game. He went into the break with a narrow 11-10 lead and took the game away from Srikanth immediately after the restart with an awe-inspiring run of seven consecutive points. The third and decisive game was also a neck-and-neck fight, but the Indian held his own in the closing stages to clinch the issue. Later in the day, Sindhu did not encounter too many problems, registering a 21-14, 21-9 victory over Fitriani. The only period of the match when Fitriani managed to match Sindhu was during the early stages of the opening game. But Sindhu took charge after the break, taking six consecutive points to build up a comfortable lead which she never relinquished. The Hyderabad shuttler completely dominated the second game, scoring almost at will to simply blow away the Indonesian’s challenge. But it was curtains for other Indians in action on Wednesday. In the men’s singles Sameer Verma lost 21-17, 21-14 to veteran Chinese star Lin Dan while HS Prannoy went down 21-8, 16-21, 15-21 to Ygor Coelho of Brazil. In men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went down fighting by a 21-18, 15-21, 21-16 margin to eighth seeds Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark. In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy lost 21-14, 21-15 to the second-seeded Japanese pair of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota.
Highlights, World Badminton Championships 2018, results: PV Sindhu beats Sung Ji Hyun; Sai Praneeth, Saina Nehwal enter QFs
Catch the live scores and updates of all the last-16 matches at the World Badminton Championships in Nanjing.
)
That’s it from us as the day 4 comes to the end. The Indians had a good day at the office apart from Kidambi Srikanth who lost to Darren Liew in straight games. Other than that, the Indians did a great job.
This is how tomorrow’s fixtures look like:
Saina Nehwal vs Carolina Marin
Sai Praneeth vs Kento Momota
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Ashwini Ponnappa vs Zheng Siwei-Huang Yaqiong
PV Sindhu vs Nozomi Okuhara
Sindhu beats Sung Ji Hyun: 21-10, 21-18
A classy display by the 23-year-old to down Sung Ji Hyun in straight games. Sindhu showed aggression and a calm, composed play in both the games to trouble the Korean ace. She was down 2-9 in the second game but she made a fantastic comeback with her steely defence to stop her opponent from winning points off long rallies.
Sindhu will be up against Nozomi Okuhara tomorrow.
16-13! COMEBACK IS ON
Sindhu has now taken a three-point lead over Sung. The Korean ace is nowhere near the forecourt.
Sindhu bags first game: 21-10
The lanky Indian shuttler bagged quick points in the early stages of the first game to have the advantage over a clueless Sung. Her attacking strokes and deceptive shots caused a lot of problems for the Korean ace.
6-1! Superb angle and boom…
Sindhu is attacking from the mid-court and is into the groove after those net exchanges. She means business today.
In the final match of the day, India’s PV Sindhu takes on World No 9 Sung Ji Hyun of South Korea in the women’s singles pre-quarters
Sindhu holds a 7-5 lead in the overall head-to-head meetings
Praneeth enters last eight
The Indian shuttler outmuscled Vittinghus of Denmark 21-13, 21-11 with his defensive masterclass, coupled with some trick shots from the net. The Danish shuttler looked indifferent in both the games.
Vittinghus needs some medical assistance after diving to his right to hit a return. He might have injured his right knee in the process.
Now he looks fine. And we are back again.
Praneeth 21-13 Vittinghus
With a good mix of attacking and defensive strokes, Praneeth manages to down Vittinghus in the opening game.
Saina Nehwal’s reaction:
“Good win..very good win! Of course, Ratchanok is known for her deceptive kind of game and I think in the second game 18-14 the game was kind of going the way I wanted. I was kind of playing a good attack and I was retrieving quite a few difficult shots but suddenly I saw her play more fearlessly. I think she just felt that now that the game is going so I should give my best…everywhere she was playing all those difficult shots that I have seen Ratchanok playing….I would say after 19 all, those two points I think Gopi Sir really played a big role there. With those two points, the strategy really mattered, the way he told me what to do and I just followed that I think the game really turned into my favour, but I would say the last two points were all about strategy.”
On her next match with Marin:
“She is a very quick and an aggressive player, I am playing her after a long time (last played in Denmark Open) It will be a challenging match for me, not an easy one. She including all the others are Champions and great players; I would like to give my best.”