Srikanth in pre-quarters of China Open
FUZHOU:INDIAN ace Kidambi Srikanth progressed into the prequarter-finals with an easy victory but HS Prannoy exited after a straight-game loss in the opening round of the China Open World Tour Super 750 event here on Wednesday.
Fifth seed Srikanth, ranked 9th, saw off France’s Lucas Corvee 21-12, 21-16 in 34 minutes to set up a clash with Indonesia’s Tommy Sugiarto.
However, Prannoy lost 11-21, 14-21 to Asian Games gold medallist Jonatan Christie of Indonesia in another men’s singles opener.
There was more bad news in store for India as young Vaishnavi Reddy Jakka went down 12-21, 16-21 to Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand in a women’s singles match.
In the mixed doubles, the Indian duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa fought hard before losing 21-18, 19-21, 17-21 to seventh seeded Malaysian combination of Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying.
On way to his third win over world No 42 Corvee, Srikanth displayed good command over his game as he erased an initial 1-4 deficit to lead 11-7 at the break of the opening game. He then extended his stranglehold over his rival to pocket the game comfortably.
In the second game, Corvee showed fighting spirit for a while as he moved neck and neck with Srikanth till 7-7. After that the Indian grabbed a 11-9 advantage at the interval and then kept increasing his lead to eventually shut the door on the French.
INDIA OVERWHELM FAROE ISLANDS
MARKHAM, CANADA: India’s mixed team registered their third consecutive win in group E, beating the lower-ranked Faroe Islands 5-0 at the Li Ning BWF World Junior Badminton Championships 2018 here.
The Indian shuttlers, who are just a win away from entering the quarter-finals, will play their last group match on Thursday against Algeria.
The team management decided to rest Asian junior champion and world No 3 Lakshya Sen and rotated a few others to test their bench strength, giving the players some required match practice on Tuesday evening before the crucial knockout phase.
In Tuesday’s match, India were put on the path of victory by the men doubles pair of Manjit Khawairapam and Dingku Singh who defeated Jonas Djurhuus and M Jacobsen 21-11, 21-7 even as Gayatri Gopichand, playing the women’s singles, downed Lena Maria Joensen 21-8, 21-7, rather easily to consolidate their lead in only 16 minutes.