Sindhu, Prannoy, Sai enter Macau Open quarters

Indian shuttlers had a good outing at the $120,000 Macau Open Grand Prix Gold as P.V. Sindhu, B. Sai Praneeth and H.S. Prannoy progressed to the quarterfinals of their respective events at the Tap Seac Multisport Pavilion here on Thursday.

Defending champion Sindhu had a tough contest against old foe Lindaweni Fanetri of Indonesia. But the Hyderabadi, who won the women's singles title here in 2013 and 2014, came out on top winning 21-17, 21-18 in 46 minutes.

With the victory, the double World Championship bronze medallist extended her record to 7-2 against the Indonesian. Next up, the 20-year-old will take on China's Chen Yufei.

In men's singles competition, 15th seed Sai took just 31 minutes to oust Indonesia's Andre Kurniawan Tedjono 21-15, 21-6 to enter the last eight. This was World No.33 Sai's second win over Tedjono in three meetings. In the quarters, he will face Malaysian Goh Soon Huat in their first career meeting.

In the last match of the day, seventh seed Prannoy had to endure the longest match of the day as he beat China's Qiao Bin 12-21, 21-11, 21-19 in a marathon encounter that lasted an hour and five minutes.

This was the first ever match between the shuttlers and next the Indian will face Indonesian 16th seed Ihsan Maulana Mustofa for a place in the semis.