Singapore Open: Sindhu, Marin to renew rivalry

Both wiill aim to book her place in semi-finals of Singapore Open Superseries tournament

Ace Indian shuttler and Rio Olympic silver-medallist P V Sindhu will aim to book her place in the semi-finals of the Singapore Open Superseries tournament when she once again takes on World No 3 Carolina Marin here later on Friday.

Sindhu displayed a spirited fight back as she bounced back from a game down against Indonesia's Fitriani Fitriani to register a hard-fought 19-21, 21-17, 21-8 win in their pre-quarterfinal clash on Thursday.

Marin, on the other hand, reached the last-eight round of the tournament after sweeping aside Chinese Taipei's Chia Hsin Lee 21-7, 21-11 later on Thursday.

The encounter promises to add another chapter in the riveting rivalry of Sindhu and the Olympic gold-medallist Spaniard.

Sindhu, who slumped to a defeat in the first round of last week's Malaysia Open Superseries, upstaged Marin to claim her maiden India Open Superseries title in New Delhi earlier this month.

Out of the 11 occasions that both these superstars clashed, Sindhu has now won eight times.

They had also faced each other at the Dubai World Superseries Finals in December last year in a group match, where the Indian shuttler came out victorious in straight games.

Earlier, in the men's singles event, Sai Praneeth also made it to the quarterfinals after beating China's Qiao Bin 21-15, 21-23, 21-16.

Meanwhile, the Indian pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa had also booked their place in the last-eight after struggling past Korean duo of Jae Hwan Kim and Lee So Hee 17-21, 21-17, 21-16 in their mixed doubles clash.