New Delhi, Feb 1: Kidambi Srikanth crashed out of the India Open after suffering a shock straight game loss even as title-contenders Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu progressed to the quarterfinals with facile wins, here today.
Playing his first tournament of the new season after recovering from an abdominal muscle strain, world no 3 Srikanth suffered a 19-21 17-21 loss to Malaysian qualifier Iskandar Zulkarnain, who is giving his career a last shot after coming back from a long injury gap due to back problem.
Top seed and defending champion Sindhu dumped Bulgaria’s Linda Zetchiri 21-10 21-14 in the women’s singles to set up a clash with eighth seeded Spaniard Beatriz Corrales, who defeated Ruthvika Shivani Gadde 21-17 21-10.
Saina, who reached the finals at Indonesia Masters last week, mauled Denmark’s Line Højmark Kjaersfeldt 21-12 21-11 in another women’s singles duel and will now face American fifth seed Beiwen Zhang next.
Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth defeated Hong Kong’s Hu Yun 21-10 21-15 in the men’s singles and will lock horns with third seeded Taiwanese Chou Tien Chen next.
Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap, who has been struggling to cross the opening round ever since recovering from his series of injuries, finally reached the men’s singles quarterfinals of a major event after overcoming compatriot Shreyansh Jaiswal 21-19 19-21 21-12.
He will face China’s Qian Bin, who overcame a fighting Kartikey Gulshan Kumar 21-17 14-21 21-13 in another pre- quarterfinal match.
Coming back after recovering from a shoulder injury, Sameer Verma also dished out an attacking game to see off former world no 3 and 2014 World Championship bronze medallist Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia 21-18 19-21 21-17 in an hour and 20 minutes in a men’s singles encounter.
Sameer, who won the Syed Modi Grand Prix gold last year, will square off against Zulkarnain.
Unseeded mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also registered a stunning 21-16 15-21 23-21 win over third seeded Malaysian combo of Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing.
The Indian duo blew four match points before recovering in time to reach their maiden quarterfinals of a major tournament.
Men’s doubles pair of Satwik and Chirag Shetty, who reached the semifinals last week at Indonesia Masters, lost narrowly 21-13 18-21 20-22 to Chinese combo of Chai Biao and Wang Zekang.
Eighth seeded Indian combo of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy also entered the mixed doubles quarters after seeing off Malaysian-Indian pair of Yogendran Khrishnan and Prajakta Sawant 21-10 21-19 in 32 minutes.
Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy too progressed to the last eight of men’s doubles with 21-11 21-15 win over compatriots Tushar Sharma and Chandrabhusan Tripathi.
Olympic champion Carolina Marin also reached the women’s singles quarters after defeating China’s Gao Fangjie 13-21 21-15 21-11. (PTI)
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