India star shuttler PV Sindhu progressed to the quarterfinals of the women's singles event at the Badminton Asia Championships happening in Dubai with a straight-game win over China's Han Yue on Thursday. Alon with the two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu, HS Prannoy, India's ace shuttler also advanced to the quarterfinals. However, their compatriot Kidambi Srikanth bowed out of the tournament.
While Prannoy had to battle it out for an hour and two minutes to prevail over Indonesian Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo 16-21 21-5 18-21 in a round of 16 match, Srikanth lost to the fourth-seeded Japanese Kodai Naraoka 14-21 22-20 9-21. Prannoy seeded eighth, will next play Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan.
Sindhu defeated Yue 21-12 21-15 in a round-of-16 match which lasted for just 33 minutes. Sindhu, eighth-seeded, will next play second-seed An Se Young of Korea.
In the mixed doubles game, Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy sailed into the quarterfinals after the fourth-seeded Korean pair of Seo Seung Jae Chae Yu Jung handed the Indians a walkover. The duo will next face the Indonesian pair of Dejan Ferdinansyah Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja.
However, another Indian pair B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa bowed out from the mixed doubles as thy lost 15-21 17-21.
Sixth-seeded Indian pair Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty progressed to the quarterfinals of the men's doubles event with a convincing 21-13 21-11 win over Jin Yong and Na Sung Seung. The star Indian dup will take on the third-seeded Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan.
(Inputs from PTI)
