SINGAPORE: Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu suffered a crushing quarterfinal loss to arch-rival Carolina Marin but B Sai Praneeth and K Srikanth advanced to the semifinals of the Singapore Open Super Series here today.
Sindhu, who had reached to a career-best world number 2 ranking after winning the India Open by beating Marin in New Delhi, went down 11-21 15-21 in a lopsided quarterfinal match in the women’s singles event.
Praneeth, however, battled for an hour and 11 minutes to eke out a 15-21 21-14 21-19 win over eighth-seeded Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk of Thailand in the men’s singles quarterfinals. The Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold finalist Indian will face Korea’s Lee Dong Keun in the semifinals.
Srikanth, who is on a comeback trail after recovering from an injury, notched up a dominating 21-14 21-16 win over All England Championship runner-up Shi Yuqi of China to set up a semifinal clash with Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia, who had beaten Sourabh Verma early in the tournament.
In the mixed doubles competition, B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 11-21 8-21 to the third-seeded Chinese duo of Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong.
It was a rare bad day in office for Sindhu as she was completely outwitted by Marin, who showed tremendous agility and pounced on every opportunity to emerge victorious. (AGENCIES)a
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