Highlights, India Open 2018, semi-final match: PV Sindhu breezes past Ratchanok Intanon to advance into final

Quarter-final Report: India managed to grab only two spots in the semi-finals of the India Open BWF World Tour 500, with only women’s singles star PV Sindhu and the mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy crossing the quarter-finals stage on Friday. London Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal, and the sixth seeded women’s doubles pair of Sikki and Ashwini Ponnappa were among the six Indian quarter-finalists who bowed out in the last eight stage at the Siri Fort Sports Complex. Defending champion Sindhu got the better of Spanish 8th seed Beatriz Corrales 21-12, 19-21, 21-11 in 54 minutes to set-up a clash against former World champion Ratchanok Intanon, who got past Hong Kong’s 7th seed Yip Pui Yin 21-11, 21-11. [caption id=“attachment_4064349” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of PV Sindhu. AP[/caption] Hong Kong’s sixth seed Cheung Ngan Yi registered an upset 21-12, 21-19 victory over reigning Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain. In the semi-final, Chenung will meet US’ fifth seed Beiwen Zhang, who tamed two-time World Championship medallist Saina 21-10, 21-13 in 32 minutes. Pranaav-Sikki thrashed Chinese Han Chengkai and Cao Tong Wei 21-8, 21-13 to storm into the semi-finals, where they will meet Danish fifth seeds Mathias Christiansen and Christinna Pedersen. The Dane pair won 21-17, 21-11 over Indians Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa. India’s three men’s singles player, Parupalli Kashyap, Sameer Verma and B Sai Praneeth all lost on the day. Kashyap fell to Chinese Qiao Bin, who won 21-16, 21-18, while Sameer lost to Malaysian Iskandar Zulkarnain 17-21, 14-21. Praneeth was a 15-21, 13-21 loser to Chinese Taipei’s third seed Chou Tien Chen. In the men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy fought hard before bowing out to the Indonesian top-seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo with a 19-21, 19-21 defeat. India’s sixth seeded women’s doubles pair of Sikki and Ashwini lost to Chinese Du Yue and Li Yinhui 17-21, 21-23. India’s women’s doubles seventh seeds Jakkampudi Meghana and Poorvisha S Ram were conquered by Thai second seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai, who won 21-10, 21-15 in 30 minutes.