Srikanth enters Australian Open Semis while Sindhu crashes out

Adjust Comment Print

Indian shuttlers had a mixed day at the Australian Open Super Series as Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth progressed to the second round but four others were knocked out in the first round itself, here.

However, disappointment was in store for India in the women's singles as Rio Olympics silver-medallist Sindhu and defending champion Saina squandered opportunities galore to go down in thrilling three-game matches.

In a hard-fought hour-long contest, Tzu Ying came back strong after losing the first game to win the match.

Srikanth will next play top seed Son Wan Ho of Korea, while Sai Praneeth will be up against Huang Yuxiang of China.

Although Praneeth fought hard, Srikanth managed to maintain a lead over his compatriot, and finally clinched the second game and the match.

Ace Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth produced a rich vein of form as he bounced back from a game down against reigning world number one Son Wan Ho to book his place in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open Super Series in Sydney on Thursday.

Lakers draft Lonzo Ball No.2 overall
LaVar Ball talked his son Lonzo becoming a Laker into existence, and he might just do the same about next year's playoffs. When asked if his father might tone it down now that the family dream has been spoken into reality, Ball laughed.

Sun Yu dominated the opening game taking a 8-4 lead before extending it further to 11-9 at the break.

However, World No 16 Praneeth carries an incredible 5-1 advantage over World No 11 Srikanth.

This is world No.1 Ying's seventh win in 10 meetings with Sindhu and the third on the trot.

Srikanth will play the victor of the second quarterfinal between Shi Yuqi of China and Denmark's Hans-Kristian Vittinghus.

Even though Sai did close the gap to just a solitary point at 12-13, it did not perturb Srikanth, kept on bagging points through his effortless strokeplay.

The men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a 16-21, 18-21 loss to eighth seeded Chinese Taipei's Chen Hung Ling and Wang Chi-Lin.

Comments