Highlights, India Open 2018, Quarter-final match: PV Sindhu into semis; Saina Nehwal bows out

Pre-quarters report: Men’s singles top seed Kidambi Srikanth of India tumbled out of the second round, while the Indian mixed doubles pair of young Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa registered a stunning victory to join PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal in the quarter-finals of the India Open BWF World Tour 500 on Thursday. Srikanth lost 19-21, 17-21 to Malaysian qualifier Iskandar Zulkarnain, who will face Sameer Verma on Friday. Sameer moved past Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto 21-18, 19-21, 21-17. The Indian pair of young Satwik and Ashwini stunned third seeds Tan Kian Menga and Lai Pei Jing of Malaysia 21-16, 15-21, 23-21 in a humdinger that lasted more than an hour. [caption id=“attachment_3975821” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal. AFP[/caption] Terming it as an “important victory” for their partnership, Ashwini said that “it was a crazy finish. We really wanted to win this as we were leading (in the match). I’m really happy it went our way”. They will next take on Danish fifth seeds Mathias Christiansen and Christinna Pedersen, who downed the Indians Rohan Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg 21-10, 21-11. Among other upsets, Danish second seeds Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen lost to unseeded Chinese pair of Han Chengkai and Zhou Haodong, who won 12-21, 23-21, 21-14. In the women’s singles, Sindhu eased past Bulgarian Linda Zetchiri 21-10, 21-14 in 33 minutes, while Saina had no problem in dismissing Denamrk’s Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt with a 21-12, 21-11 victory in 22 minutes. Olympic champion Carolina Marin overcame a scare from Chinese teenager Gao Fangjie 15-21, 21-15, 21-11 to set-up a clash against Hong Kong sixth seed Cheung Ngan Yi, who handed a 21-4, 21-7 drubbing to Thailand’s Thamolwan Poopradubsil. Defending champion Sindhu will next face Spanish eight seed Beatriz Corrales, who defeated Indian Ruthvika Shivani Gadde 21-19, 21-16. Fourth seeded Saina will take on US’ fifth seed Beiwen Zhang, who moved past Indian Mughda Agrey 21-12, 21-16. In the men’s singles, qualifier Shreyansh Jaiswal too put in a spirited display to stretch Parupalli Kashyap before bowing out 19-21, 21-19, 12-21. Kashyap will face Qiao Bin in the quarterfinals, with the Chinese having defeated qualifier Kartikey Gulshan Kumar 21-7, 21-3. Eighth seed B Sai Praneeth moved past Hu Yun 21-10, 21-15 to set-up a contest against Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien chen. In the men’s doubles, the pair of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy took only 24 minutes to take out compatriots Tushar Sharma and Chandrabhusan Tripathi with a 21-11, 21-15 victory. In the women’s doubles, seventh seeds Jakkampudi Meghana and Poorvisha S Ram got the better of compatriots Rutaparna Panda, Mithula UK 21-12, 21-18 to advance to the last eight. Ashwini also advanced to the quarter-finals with N Sikki Reddy. The sixth seeded pair defeated Megha Morchana Bora and Sanghamitra Saikia 21-9, 21-2. Sikki also entered the mixed doubles last eight stage. She partnered Pranaav Jerry Chopra to beat Malaysian-Indian combine of Yogendran Khrishnan and Prajakta Sawant 21-10, 21-19. With inputs from IANS