Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu stormed into the quarterfinals but World Championship bronze medalist Saina Nehwal's run in the French Open ended with a straight-game loss at the USD 325,000 Super Series event in Paris on Thursday. Sindhu dumped Japan's Sayaka Takahashi 21-14 21-13 to set up a revenge match against China's Chen Yufei. The World No. 10 Chinese had knocked Sindhu out in the opening round at Denmark Open.
World Championship silver medallist Sindhu had defeated Spain's Beatriz Corrales 21-19 21-18 in the opening round on Wednesday.
Former World No 1 Saina, however, failed to get across another Japanese World No 5 Akane Yamaguchi losing 9-21 21-23 in a 39-minute clash.
This is her second loss to the pint-sized dynamo in two weeks. Saina had lost to Yamaguchi in the quarterfinals at Odense.
Whereas, Denmark Open champion Kidambi Srikanth continued his red-hot run as he registered straight games 21-19, 21-17 victory over Hong Kong's Vincent Wong Wing Ki to advance into the quarter-finals. The duo had also met in Denmark Open semi-finals last week where Srikanth emerged victorious 21-18, 21-17.
Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy lost 16-21 14-21 to top-seeded Japanese Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi in women's doubles.
Sindhu dominated the opening game as her opponent had a slender lead at 9-8 only once in the opening game while in the second game the Japanese never could topple the Indian though she was competitive initially for some time.
In another women's singles encounter, Yamaguchi, who had finished as runners-up at Odense last week, tore through the opening game, leading from start to finish to earn the bragging rights.
Saina regained her composure in the second, producing a gallant fight as she kept nipping at her opponent's heels, despite being 7-11 down at the break.
The Indian caught up with the Japanese at 19-19 and had, in fact, grabbed a game point at 20-19 but Yamaguchi managed to stay ahead and closed out the match.
Men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty too made a positive start as he disposed of France's Bastian Kersaudy and Julien Maio 21-12 21-14 in 30 minutes.
They will face Denmark's sixth seed Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding next.
(With PTI Inputs)
