Sindhu, Srikanth enter Malaysia Masters semis (Roundup)

Top Indian shuttlers P.V. Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth earned straight-game victories to enter the semi-finals of the $120,000 Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold at the Spice Arena here on Friday.

A former winner here, double World Championship bronze medallist Sindhu played a clean game to beat old foe Lindaweni Fanetri and enter the women's singles semis.

Third seed Sindhu took less than half hour to beat her Indonesian opponent 21-10, 21-10 in the quarter-final to better her record to 8-2 against Lindaweni. This was the World No.12's sixth straight win over Lindaweni.

Sindhu, who won the event here in 2013, will next play South Korean top seed Sung Ji Hyun. Though the Hyderabadi has a 3-2 record against the World No.8, the South Korean has won the two meetings between them.

Later, men's singles second seed Srikanth needed just 33 minutes to move past China's Huang Yuxiang 21-15, 21-14 in the quarter-finals. This was the first contest between the two.

World No.9 Srikanth will face Malaysian Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin in the last four clash on Saturday. The Indian has a 1-0 record against him.

However, it was the end of the road for Ajay Jayaram who lost his last-eight clash to legendary Malaysian Lee Chong Wei in 35 minutes. Jayaram went down 16-21, 16-21 to lose his eighth match in as many meetings to the two-time Olympic silver medallist.