NEW DELHI: Olympic silver medalist
PV Sindhu, ace male shuttler
Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth, runner-up at this year's Syed Modi Grand Prix, advanced to the quarter-finals of the singles events at the
Singapore Open Super Series
on Thursday. Earlier in the day, the fresh pairing of
Ashwini Ponnappa and B
Sumeeth Reddy
entered the quarters of the mixed doubles event.
Saif Ali Khan Health Update
But it was disappointing end for women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N
Sikki Reddy as they lost 11-21, 21-19, 12-21 against Japanese pair of Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi in second round. The defeat was the only setback of the day for the strong Indian contingent.
Sindhu has moved into the next round with a 19-21, 21-17, 21-8 win over Indonesia's Fitriani Fitriani and will face Spain's
Carolina Marin
, her
Rio Olympics rival whom she beat in the final of the India Open in New Delhi this month as well as during the Dubai Masters in December. Fourth seed Marin defeated Chinese Taipei's Chia Hsin Lee 21-7, 21-11 in her second round match which lasted just 27 minutes.
Praneeth, ranked 30 in men's singles, overcame the China's World No 23 Qiao Bin 21-15, 21-23, 21-16 in a riveting contest to move ahead. Having dominated the first game, Praneeth was forced to sweat hard in the second as Bin rallied superbly, forcing the decider with a 23-21 win. The neck-to-neck battle continued until Praneeth edged ahead late in the final game and closed out victory 21-16. Praneeth will play eighth seed Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk of Thailand in the quarter-final.
While Srikanth was the last of the Indian to enter the last-eight stage with a came from behind 18-21, 21-19, 22-20 victory over Ihsan Maulana Mustofa of Indonesia. In a match which lasted 81 minutes, Srikanth lost the first game before taking the tie into the decider by winning the second in another tight game. And in the third game, Srikanth had to survive three match points against the Indonesian before eking out a 22-20 win. Srikanth faces fifth seed Chinese Shi Yuqi, who defeated Ajay Jayaram in the first round.
Ponnappa and Reddy registered a hard-fought 17-21, 21-17, 21-16 win over Jae Hwan Kim and Lee So Hee, and will play the third seed Chinese pair of Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong on Friday.