China Open: PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth scrape through into quarter-finals

Ace Indian shuttlers, PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth came back from a set down to progress into the quarter-finals of the USD one million China Open in Changzhou on Thursday.

While World No.3 Sindhu bounced from losing the opening set to complete a memorable comeback over Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand, the eighth-ranked Srikanth overcame an opponent from the same country after losing the second set.

Sindhu defeated Busanan 21-23, 21-13, 21-18 in the second round women’s singles encounter that lasted over an hour. It was the Thai shuttler, who had begun well taking a lead in the opening exchanges and although Sindhu bounced back to level terms, Busanan held on to clinch the first set.

Also Read: China Open: Kidambi Srikanth enters pre-quarterfinals

In the second set, Sindhu rallied hard and took the game into the decider before prevailing in the third game to seal the victory.

It was a similar contest in the men’s singles, where Srikanth somehow managed to scrape through to the next round after defeating the 31^st ranked Suppanyu Avihingsanon of Thailand 21-12 15-21 24-22.

The seventh-seeded Indian faced little trouble in winning the first set, but Avihingsanon came back in the second set to take the game into the decider.

Also Read: PV Sindhu progress into pre-quarters of China Open; Saina knocked out

Meanwhile, India’s campaign in the doubles and mixed doubles category came to an end.

In the mixed doubles category, the pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy lost in straight sets 14-21 11-21 against top-seeded Chinses combo Siwei Zheng and Huang Yaqiong in the round of 16.

Sikki Reddy and Pranav Jerry Chopra also went down in straight sets losing 16-21 10-21 to the sixth-seeded pair of Christinna Pedersen and Mathias Christiansen from Denmark.

In the men’s doubles, Mannu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy stood little chance against Chen Hung Ling and Wang Chi-Lin losing 9-21 10-21 to bow out.