Press Trust of India
Lucknow, Jan 28: Top seed Kidambi Srikanth entered the quarterfinals but a heartbreak was in store for PV Sindhu as she suffered a shocking loss to Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand in the second round of the USD 120,000 Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here Thursday.
Srikanth dished out sweet revenge in the pre-quarterfinals when he hammered Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin 21-9, 21-12 in a 32-minute match, just five days after going down to the Malaysian in the semifinals of Malaysia Masters in Penang. The World No. 9 Indian will face another Malaysian in Goh Soon Huat here Friday.
Last Sunday, Sindhu was standing on the dais with her Malaysia Masters gold medal but here, the third-seeded Indian bowed out with a 21-18, 24-26, 17-21 loss to World No. 27 Jindapol in an edge-of-the-seat thriller that lasted 88 minutes at the BBD, UP Badminton Academy.
Sindhu had every chance to close out the match in the second game itself, but then she blew a four-point lead. She had a couple of game points in the deuce stage, but failed to utilise either of them.
Defending champion Parupalli Kashyap also reached the quarterfinals after notching up a 21-19, 21-10 win over China’s Zhu Siyuan. The CWG champion will next take on China’s Huang Yuxiang.
In women’s doubles, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa brushed aside compatriots Ningshi Hazarika and Harika Veludurthi 21-9, 21-10 and the sixth seeds will next take on the Thai pair of Puttita Supajirakul and Sapsiree Taerattanachai.
Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar also had a good day in office as they marched past fifth-seeded Indonesian combo of Angga Pratama and Ricky Karanda Suwardi 21-13, 21-14 in a men’s doubles match. The Indian duo will meet third seeds Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding of Denmark, who dispatched the Indian combo of K Nandagopal and Shlok Ramchandran 21-19, 21-6 in another match. The first set was keenly contested, but in the second set the Indians gave it up.
Fifth seeds Shizuka Matsuo and Mami Naito of Japan ended the run of India’s S Poorvisha Ram and Arathi Sara Sunil 21-9, 21-11 in a women’s doubles match, while K Maneesha and N Sikki Reddy went down 11-21, 17-21 to Puttita Supajirakul and Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand.
