Sindhu, Srikanth advance; Saina exits French Open

Indian shuttlers P.V. Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth advanced to the quarter-finals, while Saina Nehwal, B. Sai Praneeth and the women's doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy suffered losses in the second round of the French Open World Superseries here on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the young men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated Denmark's Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding 22-20, 12-21, 21-19 in an hour to march into the last eight stage.

Second seed Sindhu eased past Japanese Sayaka Takahashi 21-14, 21-13 in 39 minutes. In the quarter-finals on Friday, Rio Olympic silver medallist Sindhu will meet Chinese rising star Chen Yufei, who dismissed Indonesian Hanna Ramadini 21-17, 21-9.

Men's eighth seed Srikanth got past Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent 21-19, 21-17 in 37 minutes.

However, London Olympics bronze medallist Saina lost to Japanese fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi 9-21, 21-23 in 39 minutes.

It was 20-year-old Yamaguchi's third consecutive win over 27-year-old Saina, who still leads the Japanese 3-1 in head-to-head records.

Yamaguchi completely dominated Saina in the first match after opening up a 13-7 lead before winning it 21-9.

Saina, however, fought valiantly in the second game. Yamaguchi started again strongly, holding a 7-3 lead. Saina kept trailing before managing to equalise at the 19-point mark before taking a 20-19 lead.

However, the 2017 Asian Championships silver medallist quickly hit back and pulled level at the 20-point mark and took a 21-20 lead.

Saina once again keptAherself in the reckoning, equalising at 21-21. But Yamaguchi stepped up her game to seal it 23-21.

In a men's singles clash, Praneeth lost to Japanese qualifier Kenta Nishimoto 13-21, 17-21 in 44 minutes.

In a women's doubles match, Ashwini and Sikki lost to Japanese top seeds Misaki Matsumoto and Ayaka Takahashi 16-21, 14-21 in 38 minutes.

--IANS

pur/sku/