Kolkata: Ace shuttler PV Sindhu and Sameer Verma progressed to the quarter-finals of the Korea Super Series in the men’s and women’s singles event respectively on Thursday.
The Olympic and 2017 World Championship silver medallist Sindhu got the better of Thailand’s Nitchaon Jindapol 22-20, 21-17 to advance to the quarters where she would face Japan’s Minatsu Mitani, the 2014 World Championship bronze medallist who also had defeated Saina Nehwal in the final of the 2012 French Open.
The Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold winner Sameer Verma on the other hand went past Hong Kong’s Wing Ki Vincent 21-19, 21-13 in a match that lasted for 41 minutes. Sameer, who had also made it to the Hong Kong Super Series finals in 2016 would now face top seeded Son Wan Ho, who is the local favourite.
But for B Sai Praneeth and Parupalli Kashyap, it was the end of the road after the both of them lost their second round men’s singles matches.
The 29-year-old Son Wan, faced a tough competition from Kashyap but ended up on the winning side as he got the better of the latter 21-16, 17-21 and 21-16 to progress to the quarters.
Compatriot Sai Praneeth also put up a good show against the seventh seeded Tzu Wei Wang of Chinese Taipei before being defeated 13-21 and 24-26 in a 40-minute match.
In the men’s doubles event, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated the seventh seeded Chinese Taipei duo of Lee Jhe-Huei and Lee Yang 23-21, 16-21 and 21-8 in a 51-minute second round match.
They would now compete in their maiden Super Series quarter-final on Friday when they take on the third seeded Japanese duo of Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda.
Shetty described this victory as, ‘unreal’ and said, “We didn’t expect to enter the quarter-finals. Coming in, we had a bad show at the World Championships. This is the biggest victory we’ve had. It’s a big boost for us.”