Saina, Sindhu crash out; Srikanth reaches semis
sydney — India’s campaign in the women’s singles category at the $750,000 Australia Open Superseries ended after London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal went down to sixth-seeded Sun Yu of China in a quarter-finals match here on Friday.
The Chinese shuttler beat Saina 21-17, 10-21, 21-17 in a match that lasted for an hour and 19 minutes.
Earlier, P.V. Sindhu also lost her quarterfinals match to World No.1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei.
Meanwhile, Kidambi Srikanth overcame compatriot Sai Praneeth 25-23, 21-17 to reach the semifinals of badminton’s Australian Open in Sydney on Friday.
It will be Srikanth’s third straight Superseries semifinal, a turnaround from his modest form of last season.
Sun Yu dominated the opening game taking a 8-4 lead before extending it further to 11-9 at the break. Saina, however, made a strong comeback after the break and went ahead 15-13 before Sun Yu gained eight straight points to pocket the game.
In the second game, Saina surged ahead taking six straight points to lead 7-3 and went to the break at 11-4. Coming back, the Hyderabadi never allowed the Chinese to settle and extended her lead to 1810 and easily winning it 21-10.
The decider witnessed fierce battle between the two shuttlers splitting at 4-4 and then going neck and neck till 9-9 before Saina took the lead at 11-9.
Sun Yu will now take on Nozomi Okuhara, who beat fellow Japanese Sayaka Takahashi in another quarter-final tie.
India’s “It’s going great so far, I just want to play well,” Kidambi Srikanth said.
“I missed six-seven tournaments last year, I just want to play as many games as possible.”— IANS / AFP