World Badminton Championships 2017: Kidambi Srikanth advances; Sung Ji Hyun sets up Saina Nehwal date

Kidambi Srikanth extended his winning streak to 12 after beating Lucas Corvee of France in straight games in men’s singles, while South Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun defeated Tanvi Lad in the women’s division to set up a pre-quarterfinal clash with Saina Nehwal at the World Badminton Championships on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_3708359” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of India’s Srikanth Kidambi. AP[/caption] It took just 32 minutes for Srikanth to floor Corvee 21-9, 21-17 and move into the pre-quarterfinals. Both the shuttlers started off well as the score was tied on 6-6 before Srikanth went on to win 10 consecutive points to make it 16-6 in the first game. The world number eight clinched the first game quite comfortably in 12 minutes. A series of attacking strokes and forehand drives made the difference for Srikanth. He took full advantage of Corvee’s back court positioning, which allowed Srikanth to hit a few drop shots as well. Corvee was stretched at the tramlines and eventually, was outplayed. Elsewhere, Sung made a confident start against Lad and took the opening game 21-9. It was in the second game that Lad showed some courage to lead 12-11 before Sung raced away to clinch the match 21-9, 21-19. Earlier, Saina defeated Swiss shuttler Sabrina Jaquet 21-11 21-12 in just 33 minutes to book her pre-quarterfinal spot. It was her second victory over Sabrina, with the Indian having beaten her rival at the 2012 London Olympics as well. Sania had won a silver medal in the previous edition of the World Championship in Jakarta while Sabrina is a winner of a bronze medal at European Championships this year. World number 19 B Sai Praneeth bounced back from a game down to outwit the world number 26 Indonesian 14-21 21-18 21-19 in a men’s singles match that lasted an hour and 12 minutes. Click here for all live action from the World Badminton Championships 2017