Sydney: Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth eked out thrilling victories in the men’s singles second round to set up an all-Indian quarterfinal clash at the $7,50,000 Australian Super Series badminton tournament here Thursday.
PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal also advanced to the quarterfinals of the women’s singles with contrasting victories over their respective opponents.
Srikanth, who had edged out Son Wan Ho in the semifinals of Indonesia Open last week, once again had an upper hand against the World No. 1 Korean, beating him 15-21, 21-13, 21-13 in a 57-minute clash.
After losing the first game rather tamely, Srikanth managed to pull back things by engaging the Korean in long rallies. As the match progressed Son looked exhausted and threw in the towel rather tamely in the next two games.
“He’s (Son) who doesn’t attack too much, just keeps the rallies going. I had to be patient and my fitness paid off,” Srikanth said after the match.
In another match, Sai Praneeth staved off a stiff challenge from China’s Huang Yuxiang before winning 21-15, 18-21, 21-13 in a match that lasted 64 minutes.
Interestingly, Srikanth and Praneeth had clashed in the final of Singapore Open in April with the latter emerging victorious.
In the women’s singles, fifth seed Sindhu defeated Chen Xiaoxin 21-13, 21-18, in 46 minutes. She will clash with World No. 1 and top seed Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei against whom she holds a 3-6 head-to-head record.
World No. 16 Saina survived a scare from little-known Soniia Cheah of USA before winning 21-15, 20-22, 21-14 to set up a clash with sixth-seeded Chinese Sun Yu.
In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy fought well before suffering a 21-18, 18-21, 13-21 loss to seventh seeded Japanese pair of Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto.
The men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a 16-21 18-21 loss to eighth seeded Chinese Taipei’s Chen Hung Ling and Wang Chi-Lin.
Press Trust of India