PV SINDHU REACHES QUARTERS

GUWAHATI: Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu sailed into the quarter-finals with a straightgame win at the 83rd Senior National Badminton Championships here on Thursday. Top seeded Sindhu took time to get into the groove before opening her campaign with a 21-11, 21-13 win over Nagpur’s Malvika Bansod in women’s singles while men’s top seed Sameer Verma conceded against Aryamann Tandon at 21-16, 1-8 after aggravating an Achilles’ heel problem. Along with Sindhu, fourth seeded Assamese Ashmita Chaliha, third seed Shreyanshi Pardeshi, Riya Mookerjee, Aakarshi Kashyap, veteran Neha Pandit and Vaishnavi Bhale also made it to the last eight round. In men’s singles, former champion Sourabh Verma, Lakshya Sen, Kaushal Dharmamer, Harsheel Dani, Tandon and Bodhit Joshi also progressed to the quarter-finals.