PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth advance in Korea Open Super 500 badminton tournament

Suncheon, April 6

Top Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth made impressive starts at the Korea Open Super 500 badminton tournament, progressing to the pre-quarterfinals with straight-game wins over their opponents here today.

Sindhu, a two-time Olympics medallist, trounced USA’s Lauren Lam 21-15 21-14 while Srikanth saw off Malaysia’s world No. 35 Daren Liew 22-20 21-11 at the Palma Stadium.

The third-seeded Sindhu, who had claimed the Swiss Open title recently, will next meet Japan’s Aya Ohori, while World Championships silver medallist Srikanth, seeded fifth, will be up against Israel’s Misha Zilberman for a place in the quarterfinals.

The Indian men’s doubles pairings of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila also progressed to the second round.

While Rankireddy and Shetty got the better of South Korea’s Tae Yang Shin and Wang Chan 21-16 21-15, Arjun and Kapila got a walkover from South Korea’s Ba Da Kim and Hee Young Park.

Rankireddy and Shetty, seeded third, will now take on Singapore’s Hee Yong Kai Terry and Loh Kean Hean, while Arjun and Kapila face the second-seeded Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan.

In the women’s singles, Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli bowed out after losing 5-21 13-21 to second-seeded Korean An Seyoung. —