Asia Badminton Championships: Saina Nehwal, K Srikanth bow out

Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu and the pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2022 Badminton Asia Championships after winning their respective matches but it was curtains for Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth on Thursday.

Former world champion Sindhu overcame a stiff challenge from Jaslyn Hooi of Singapore to reach the women's singles quarter-finals. Ranked seventh in the badminton world rankings, Sindhu defeated the world No 100 Singaporean 21-16, 21-16 in 42 minutes at the Muntinlupa Sports Complex.

The fourth-seeded Indian will now face third seed He Bing Jiao of China. The two had faced each other in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics bronze medal match, in which Sindhu prevailed.

Meanwhile, India's top men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also progressed to the final eight. They beat Japan's Akira Koga and Taichi Saito 21-17, 21-15 in 43 minutes.

However, London 2012 bronze medallist Saina Nehwal's women's singles campaign ended in the round of 16 with a 21-12, 7-21, 13-21 loss against China's Wang Zhi Yi. World championship silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth also went down to China's Weng Hong Yang 16-21, 21-17, 17-21 in a men's singles second-round match that lasted an hour and 17 minutes.

The mixed doubles pair of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Castro also lost 18-21, 18-21 against Malaysia's Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing in a 30-minute clash.

Published on: Thursday, April 28, 2022, 11:13 PM IST