Indian star shuttlers PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth advanced to the singles quarterfinals of the Madrid Spain Masters badminton tournament with straight-game wins on Thursday. While Sindhu defeated Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia, Srikanth beat compatriot B Sai Praneeth.
Two-time Olympic medallist, Sindhu dispatched Putri Kusuma Wardani 21-16 21-14 in a little over half an hour game and entered her first quarterfinal in the year 2023. Srikanth, on the other hand, pulled off a 21-15 21-12 second-round win over B Sai Praneeth.
Since Sindhu returned after recovering from injury, she has been struggling for form during this season. It is the first time in 2023 that the 27-year-old former world champion has crossed the second round. She will take on 25-year-old Danish Mia Blichfeldt in the last eight stage of the Super 300 tournament.
Srikanth who is seeded fifth will face former world No. 1 is pitted against top seed Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in the thrilling quarterfinals. Nishimoto was handed a walkover by France's Arnaud Merkle in their second-round contest.
When it comes to other Indians in the competition, Kiran George and Priyanshu Rajawat crashed out of the men's singles event after suffering second-round defeats. While George suffered a loss to Denmark's Magnus Johannesen 17-21 12-21 in 31 minutes, Rajat was outplayed 14-21 15-21 by Toma Junior Popov of France.
Aakarshi Kashyap, Ashmita Chaliha Malvika Bansod, and Sameer Verma are set to play their second-round matches. The men's and women's doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila and Sikki Reddy and Arathi Sara Sunil will also be in action.
(Inputs from PTI)
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