Saina, Sindhu, Kashyap, Srikanth register easy victory
Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Denmark open
Odense: Saina Nehwal, P.V. Sindhu, Parupalli Kashyap and K. Srikanth stormed into the quartefinals of the women’s and men’s singles events at the the Denmark Open Superseries Badminton Premier here on Thursday. Two-time World Championships bronze medallist Sindhu took just 31 minutes to get the better of Ksenia Polikarpova of Russia 21-17, 21-19 while Saina thrashed Japan’s Minatsu Mitani 21-12, 21-10 at the Odense Sports Park.
In a match that lasted just 38 minutes, Saina was unstoppable against her Japanese opponent. After running away to a 21-12 win in the first game, Saina reeled off winner after winner to lead 17-7. She then lost three games, but refused to relinquish her hold on the match to win easily 21-12, 21-10. The Sindhu next meets fourth-seeded South Korean Ji Hyun Sung, who defeated Japanese qualifier Akane Yamaguchi 21-13, 21-18. It’s a tougher match for Saina, who faces second seed Shixian Wang of China. Shixian had thrashed Japan’s Eriko Hirose 21-13, 21-9.
Srikanth defeated Chinese Taipei’s Jen Hao Hsu 21-12, 21-15 in 45 minutes and Kashyap fought hard before prevailing over Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka of Indonesia 21-17, 17-21, 22-20 in a contest that lasted 69 minutes. World No.10 Sindhu opened up a 4-0 lead in the first game and continued to widen the gap, eventually winning it 20-17.
In the second game, Sindhu quickly broke away from a 2-2 tie to take a slight edge and then she kept on extending it to make it 19-15 at one stage. But a brief fight back from the Russian saw her closing the gap to 19-20 before Sindhu used all her experience to wrap it up in her favour.
In men’s singles second round matches, Srikanth had a rather comfortable outing on Thursday, but Glasgow Commonwealth Games gold medallist Kashyap faced a stiff challenge from his Indonesian opponent.
After a neck and neck battle till 13-13 in the opening game, Kashyap bagged four consecutive points to make it 17-13 and then there was no looking back for the Indian.
But the Indonesian shuttler came back strongly in the second game as he opened up a huge 7-1 lead. Although Kashyap managed to reel off six points on a trot to catch his opponent, the Indonesian showed a lot of determination to keep the Indian at bay and take the match to the decider.
( Source : PTI )
Next Story
