Kolkata: Indian shuttlers continued with their fine form at the ongoing World Badminton Championships as Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu entered the quarter-finals on the singles event on Thursday. While Srikanth put up a comfortable win, Sindhu had to overcome a tough challenge from Hong Kong’s Cheung Ngan Yi to remain just one step away from ensuring a medal at the Championships.
Srikanth who was knocked out at the pre-quarters in the last edition of the championship, defeated Denmark’s Anders Antonsen, 21-14, 21-18 to ease his way into the quarters.
However, Rio Olympic silver medalist Sindhu had to play her heart out to beat the World number 17 Cheung 19-21, 23-21, 21-17 in a match that lasted for an hour and 27 minutes. She will next face fifth seeded Sun Yu of China in the quarters.
World no. 10 Srikanth took an initial lead in the match, to stand at 11-8 in the first set, but the Danish Antonsen, bounced back to reduce the gap to 11-13. Srikanth however, with his fast pace and clever play won the first set 21-14.
The second set also followed the first, as Srikanth took a 11-3 lead, in the early part of the second half. But, Antonsen fought back to reduce gap at 21-18. However, Srikanth stuck to his game to seal the tie and make a place in the quarters.
“It was a good game today. There were some intense rallies and I am happy for the win,” Srikanth told PTI after the match. He will next be the face the top seed and world no. 1 Son Wan Ho for a semi-final berth.
When asked how is he planning to tackle his opponent in the semi-final, he said, “It will be a tough match but I have been improving with each match and looking forward for a good game tomorrow.”
While Sindhu who had won back to back bronze medals in the 2013 and 2014 editions of the tournament faced a stern challenge from the Hong Kong’s Cheung for a place at the quarters.
Cheung, who had won the battle in the first set (21-19) however, could not match it up in the second set.
In the second set, Sindhu drew the first blood, taking a 4-0 lead quickly but Cheung came back strongly to tie the set at 21-21. That is when Sindhu picked up her game to win the set 23-21 and take things to the decider.
Tied at 1-1 after both had won one set each, the fight looked intense as Sindhu kept on taking the lead, while Cheung came back strongly to level the points. With Sindhu at lead with the scores 23-17, Cheung looked prepared to level the scores once again. However, Sindhu stepped up when needed, to win the game and progress ahead in the championship.
However, the other Indians did not have a good day as the singles, as the 15th seeded doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy lost to the world no. 6 Indonesian duo of Debby Susanto and Praveen Jordan 22-20, 18-21, 18-21 to exit the tournament.
In the women’s doubles, the Indian pair of Sanjan Santosh and Arathi Sara Sunil were defeated by the 14th seeded Chinese pair Bao Yixin and Yu Xiaohan 14-21, 15-21 in straight sets, knocking them out of the tournament.