Sindhu, Sai Praneeth join Srikanth in Singapore Open quarters

Teen sensation PV Sindhu entered the quarterfinals with a victory in women’s singles but it was young Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth, who created a flutter at the USD 300,000 Singapore Super Series, with a stunning win over world number 10 Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam today. Another Indian youngster, Sai Praneeth B, also made the last eight stage by registering a straight-game win over Zi Liang Derek Wong of Singapore. The 18-year-old Sindhu, who won the Malaysia Open and Macau Open last year besides the prestigious World Championship bronze, prevailed over Japan’s Shizuka Uchida 21-17 17-21 21-16 in a women’s singles match. The Indian will next take on World No. 3 Yihan Wang tomorrow. [caption id=“attachment_1475155” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sai Praneeth. AFP[/caption] After three first-round exits in the All England, Swiss Open and India Super Series, Srikanth finally found his form back as he notched up an upset 18-21 21-15 21-8 win over the World Championships bronze medallist. Thailand Open champion, Srikanth, who was the finalist at the India Grand Prix Gold earlier this year, will next take on Hong Kong’s Yun Hu in the quarterfinals tomorrow. The Indian has a 1-0 record against Hu, having beaten him at the Maybank Malaysia Open early in the season. World number 50 Sai Praneeth gave a good account of himself as he managed to prevail over his opponent from Singapore, ranked 43rd, 24-22 21-19 in a match that lasted 39 minutes. He will be up against world no. 7 Chinese Du Pengyu in the quarterfinals. Du Pengyu, earlier today, had posted a hard-fought win over India’s H S Prannoy 21-17 18-21 21-12 in an hour and six-minute battle. Meanwhile, it was also curtains for P C Thulasi, who lost to world number two Chinese Yihan Wang 19-21 7-21 in 35 minutes in a second round women’s singles match. In the men’s doubles competition, Alwin Franchis and Arun Vishnu were humbled by the top seeded Indonesian combo of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 21-17 24-22. Another Indian pair of Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan, too, failed to cross the second round hurdle, as they went down fighting 21-23 17-21 to Gideon Markus Fernaldi and Rizki Amelia Pradipta of Indonesia in the mixed doubles event. In the women’s singles competition, Sindhu was 11-10 ahead at the first interval and seh kept the pressure on the world number 113 Shizuka even after the break, moving from 14-10 to 19-14 to pcoket the game. PTI