Saina, Srikanth, Sindhu in quarters, Praneeth, Jayaram lose

India's Saina Nehwal, P.V. Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth reached the quarter-finals, while B. Sai Praneeth, Ajay Jayaram and the mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N. Sikki Reddy lost in the pre-quarterfinals of the World Badminton Championships here on Thursday.

Sindhu, a double World Championships bronze medallist, earned a hard-fought win over Hong Kong 13th seed Cheung Ngan Yi 19-21, 23-21, 21-17 in an hour and 27 minutes.

In the next round, Sindhu will face Chinese fifth seed Sun Yu, who got past Spanish 15th seed Beatriz Corrales 21-16, 21-19.

Saina, seeded 12th, registered a morale-boosting 21-19, 21-15 win over South Korean second seed Sung ji Hyun.

Meanwhile, Chinese teenager Chen Yufei stunned Japanese top seed Akane Yamaguchi 21-18, 21-19.

In the men's singles, eighth seed Srikanth registered a 21-14, 21-18 win over Danish 14th seed Anders Antonsen.

The next opponent for Srikanth will be South Korean top seed Son Wan Ho, who edged past Thai 11th seed Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk 21-18, 21-13.

Chinese fifth seed and defending champions Chen Long crushed Indian 13th seed Jayaram 21-11, 21-10 to book his place in the quarter-finals.

Praneeth, 15th seed, lost to Chinese Taipei sixth seed Chou Tien Chen 21-19, 10-21, 12-21 in an hour and one minute.

Five-time world champion and Chinese seventh seed Lin Dan fought back from one game down to defeat England's Rajiv Ouseph 14-21, 21-17, 21-16.

Pranaav and Sikki, the 15th seeds, battled hard as they came close to upsetting the Indonesian seventh seeds Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto but the latter prevailed 20-22, 21-18, 21-18.

With the loss of Pranaav and Sikki, India's doubles campaign in the tournament came to an end.

--IANS

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