Kowloon: Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu continued her surge in the world of badminton, sailing into the quarter-finals of the $400,000 Hong Kong Open Superseries. But world no. 10s and national champions Saina Nehwal and HS Prannoy crushed out in a three game battle.
Sindhu, who has slipped to world no. 3 after a poor outing in the China Open easily eased past Japan’s Aya Ohori 21-14, 21-17 in just 39 minutes, her third victory in as many games against the 13th ranked Japanese.
The Rio Olympics silver medalist will next face another Japanese and world no. 2 Akane Yamaguchi, who reached three back to back Super Series finals this year, winning the China Open, while finishing runners-up in the Denmark and French Open. Nonetheless, the Hyderabadi shuttler has a 3-2 advantage in head to head battles against Yamaguchi but has lost the only time the two met this year, at the French Open.
World Championships bronze medalist Saina Nehwal’s campaign, however curtained to an end after she crushed out of the second round. The 27-year-old put up a close fight but ran out of steam, to eventually lose 18-21, 21-19, 21-10 against Chen Yufei of China, in a match that lasted an hour.
The 10th ranked Chinese lost the first game but came back strongly to win the next two and progress. She will next face the top seeded Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals.
It was also over for HS Prannoy, who lost to Kazumasa Sakai 11-21, 21-10, 21-15 in a closely fought 54 minutes battle. The Japanese came out with his A game, despite losing the first set to inflict the defeat on an in form Prannoy, who has now lost all the three matches he has played against Sakai. The 23rd ranked shuttler from Japan will next face Anders Antonsen of Denmark.
Saina and Prannoy’s loss also make them ineligible to participate in the Dubai Finals, where only the top eight ranked shuttlers from each category can compete.