Sindhu stems slide to enter last-8, Srikanth comes good

Madrid, March 30

Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth moved to the singles quarterfinals of the Spain Masters Super 300 tournament with straight-game wins here today.

Sindhu dispatched Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia 21-16 21-14 in a little over 30 minutes for her first quarterfinals berth of the year.

Second seed Sindhu has been struggling for form this season following her return to action after a long injury lay-off. It is the first time this year that the 27-year-old former world champion has crossed the second round.

Sindhu, who has dropped out of the top-10 for the first time since November 2016, will take on 25-year-old Danish Mia Blichfeldt in the last-eight stage.

World No. 21 Srikanth, on the other hand, pulled off a 21-15 21-12 second-round win over compatriot B Sai Praneeth. Srikanth, seeded fifth, has a tough contest ahead of him as he is pitted against top seed Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in the quarterfinals. Nishimoto was handed a walkover by France’s Arnaud Merkle in their second-round contest.

Kiran George and Priyanshu Rajawat crashed out of the men’s singles event. While George went down to Denmark’s Magnus Johannesen 17-21 12-21 in 31 minutes, Rajat was outplayed 14-21 15-21 by eighth seed Toma Junior Popov of France.