Indonesia Open: Birthday girl Sindhu advances into quarter-finals; Saina knocked out

It was a perfect 23rd birthday celebration for Olympic medallist PV Sindhu who marched-off to the quarter-finals with a straight game victory over Japan’s Aya Ohori at the $1.25 million Indonesia Open in Jakarta on Thursday.

HS Prannoy also progressed to the quarters with a hard-fought win, but it was curtains for Saina Nehwal, who went down 18-21, 15-21, against Chen Yufei of China to crush out in the third round.

World No. 3 Sindhu who reached the Malaysia Open semi-finals, beat Ohori 21-17, 21-14, in just 36 minutes to notch up her fifth victory over the Japanese in as many meetings.

She will next face either Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan or China’s He Bingjiao.

Facing the 17th ranked Japanese, Sindhu had to bounce back from a 0-3 deficit to surge ahead at 10-8. She soon raced to 16-12 lead and sealed the first set.

In the second game, the Indian continued her destructiveness and raced to 17-8 lead. But just when it seemed that she wouldn’t have to break a sweat, Ohori fought her way into the contest reducing the deficit to 12-17, she however couldn’t stop Sindhu from winning the game.

Earlier Prannoy recovered from an opening set defeat to outwit Wang Tzu Wei, 21-23, 21-15, 21-13, in a three-game thriller.

The Indian found it hard to tackle Wang who in a short-span of time opened up a 14-10 lead and threatened to take the game way. But Prannoy slowly gaining composure, somehow reduced the deficit to 13-14.

Also Read: Indonesia Open: Srikanth crushes out in the opening round; Sindhu advances

From there the World No. 8 then took charge and also had a great opportunity to seal the game, when he was handed an advantage after both the shuttlers had equalled at 19-19. Prannoy however spilled the chance and Wang made no mistake to come out victorious in the opening set.

Prannoy then carried on the momentum in the second set and was more aggressive. He was helped by wang, who often found the net or hit his shots wide, to hand over the advantage and with the game.

Meanwhile, Sameer Verma existed the competition after standing no match against world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen.

The Dane also qualified for the quarters with a 15-21, 14-21, straight-sets victory.