Srikanth enters semi-finals, PV Sindhu crashes out

SINGAPORE: India’s Kidambi Srikanth registered a hard-fought win to enter the semifinals of the men’s singles event of the Singapore Super Series even as P V Sindhu and B Sai Praneeth crashed out in straight games, here on Friday. Srikanth got the better of world number 14 Hun Yu of Hong Kong 17-21 21-14 21-19 in a marathon quarterfinal duel that lasted an hour and three minutes, to set up a semifinal date against top seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia. By virtue of this win, Srikanth, ranked 25th in the world, has taken a 2-0 lead over Yu in their career meetings. The previous time both the shuttlers met was at the Malaysia Open Super Series Premier in January. Unlike Srikanth, other Indians in the fray -- Sindhu and Praneeth -- didn’t have the same fate as they lost their respective matches.

Eight seed Sindhu started brightly before surrendering to the second seed and world number 3 Yihan Wang of China. It was a close battle between the two shuttlers, which the Chinese won 21-19 21-15 in 37 minutes. Wang, thus, took a 2-1 lead over Sindhu in head-to-head record. ABHIJEET IN SOLE LEAD

Grandmaster and highest rated Indian in the fray, Abhijeet Gupta shot into sole lead, defeating Hatim Al-Hadarani of Yemen in the fourth round of 16th Dubai International open chess tournament here on Friday.

DUBAI:

The victory with black pieces turned out to be fourth in a row for Gupta and his clean slate helped him annex the sole lead on four points. It was a clean effort by the Indian as Hatim Al-Hadarani fell prey to some finely crafted manoeuvres in the endgame.