Srikanth enters semis, Sindhu ousted

THE WIZARD QUICKLY JINXED THE GNOMES BEFORE THEY VAPORIZED! GRUMPY WIZARDS MAKE TOXIC BREW FOR THE EVIL QUEEN AND JACK.

Ace Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth continued his rich vein of form as he got the better of fellow countryman B Sai Praneeth in straight games to romp into the semi-finals of the Australian Open Super Series here on Friday.

However, in a major blow, Rio-Olympic silver-medallist PV Sindhu was knocked out of the event after going down against Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying in the quarter-finals of the women’s singles.

Srikanth, who was playing his third quarterfinal in last five tournaments, outplayed Praneeth 25-23, 21-17 in a thrilling all-Indian last-eight clash of the men’s singles event that lasted 45 minutes at the Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre.

After trailing 6-9 in the opening set, Praneeth rebounded strongly to earn three points in a row to make it 9-9.

However, the Hyderabadi player didn’t manage to hold Kidambi, who eventually extended his lead to 11-9 at the break of the second game. With the win, Srikanth has avenged his Singapore Open loss, where Praneeth defeated the former 17-21, 21-17, 21-12 in all-Indian final to lift his first ever Super Series title.

Srikanth will next lock horns with the winner of another quarter-final clash between China’s Shi Yuqi and Denmark’s HansKristian Vittinghus.

The fifth-seed Sindhu made a spectacular start to her lasteight clash, leading World No.1 Tzu Ying 21-16 after the first game.

However, Sindhu failed to continue the momentum and went down to suffer a 21- 10, 20-22, 16-21 defeat against the World No.1 that lasted for one hour.

In another women’s singles clash, India’s Saina Nehwal will look to book her place in the semi-finals when she takes on sixth-seed Sun Yu later today.