Singapore: The Indian trio of P V Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth continued their impressive run and progressed to the singles quarterfinals of the US $ 355,000 Singapore Open here Thursday. The fourth-seeded Sindhu, a Rio Games silver medallist, took 39 minutes to get the better of world number 22 Mia Blichfeldt 21-13 21-19, her second straight win over the Danish shuttler, who had clinched the Spain Masters earlier this year.
World number 6 Sindhu will next face China’s Cai Yanyan, a 2017 BWF World Junior Championships bronze medallist. Sixth seed Srikanth survived a scare in the second game before overcoming Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus 21-12 23-21, setting up a meeting with top seed Japan’s Kento Mamota, who ended HS Prannoy’s campaign with a straight game victory.
Sixth seed Saina had to work hard in her bid to avenge a Malaysia Open first-round loss to Pornpawee Chochuwong before pulling off a thrilling 21-16 18-21 21-19 win over the Thai shuttler in the second round. While Saina was plotting the downfall of Chochuwong, her husband and fellow shuttler Parupalli Kashyap, was locked in a fierce battle with reigning Olympic champion, Chen Long of China.
Kashyap, stretched Chen to three games before losing 9-21 21-15 16-21 to the fourth seeded Chinese. It was curtains for Prannoy too, after a 11-21 11-21 defeat at the hands of the world no 1 Japanese. Sameer Verma defeated China’s Lu Guangzu 21-15 21-18, to set up a clash with second seeded Taipei player Chou Tien Chen. Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy also entered the quarterfinals after stunning world no 11 Hong Kong pair of Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet 21-17 6-21 21-19 in a 50-minute clash.
