PV Sindhu, Sai Praneeth, Pranaav-Sikki advance at World Badminton Championships
India's ace shuttler P V Sindhu advanced to the pre-quarterfinals in the women's singles event, whereas, Sai Praneeth reaches round two in the men's singles of World Badminton Championships 2017 in Glasgow.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the women's singles competition after defeating Korea's Kim Hyo Min in the second round of the World Championship in Glasgow. Sindhu, who twice won bronze medals at the 2013 and 2014 editions, notched up a 21-16 21-14 win over Kim in a 49-minute match, to extend her head-to-head record against the Korean to 4-1 in five meetings.
The 22-year-old, who received a bye in the opening round, will face either Russian's Evgeniya Kosetskaya or Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi, the 13th seed, in the next round.
Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth opened his campaign at the World Championships with a straight-game win over Hong Kong's Wei Nan to reach the second round of men's singles event in Glasgow. The 15th seeded Indian fought back from 5-9 and 14-16 in the opening game and then erased a deficit of 10-13 and 15-17 in the second game to eventually see off Wei Nan 21-18 21-17 in a 48-minute match.
The 25-year-old from Hyderabad will next take on Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, who is the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic and World Junior Championships boys' singles bronze medallist.
India top mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy seeded 15th, who had won the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold title, defeated Indo-Malaysian combo of Prajakta Sawant and Yogendran Khrishnan 21-12 21-19.
However, disappointment was in store for India in the other mixed doubles matches as B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa, and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Maneesha K suffered contrasting losses to bow out of the event.
Sumeeth and Ashwini, who had reached the finals of Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in January, went down fighting 17-21 21- 18 5-21 to 13th seeded Chinese pair of Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping, while Satwiksairaj and Maneesha lost 20-22 18-21 to 14th seeded Denmark duo of Mathias Christiansen and Sara Thygesen.
In women's singles, National champion Rituparna Das also emerged victories in the opening round yesterday after her opponent Finland's Airi Mikkela retired after lagging 0-2 in the first game.
(With PTI Inputs)