Sindhu, Srikanth, Saina, Prannoy in Badminton Asia Championships quarters

It was a good day for India's singles players as P.V. Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, Saina Nehwal and H.S. Prannoy entered the quarter-finals of the Badminton Asia Championships at the Wuhan Sports Centre here on Thursday.

Apart from doubles players, the disappointment of day in singles category was B. Sai Praneeth. Praneeth bowed out of the meet, losing the second round men's singles match to third seed Chen Long of China.

While Sindhu outplayed Chen Xiaoxin of China 21-12, 21-15 Srikanth got better of Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent, who was retired at 7-2 in the first game. Saina and Prannoy defeated Gao Fangjie and Wang Tzu Wei respectively to advance.

In the men's singles category, Srikanth, who held the World No. 1 ranking for a week sealed the quarters berth in just four minutes when his opponent Vincent retired at 7-2 in the first game.

Srikanth will now face three-time Olympic silver medallist Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia.

Prannoy bounced back from a game down to edge past Chinese Taipei's Wang Tzu Wei 16-21, 21-14, 21-12 in a 56-minute match.

After going down in the the first game, Prannoy displayed some quality badminton to register a win.

He will now face second seed Son Wan Ho of South Korea.

Meanwhile, Praneeth surrendered the game 12-21, 12-21 to World No. 3 Chen Long in just 39 minutes of play.

In women's singles, World No. 12 Saina defeated Gao Fangjie of China.

Fangjie showed some character in the first game but the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games gold medallist Saina proved superior at the end and thus closed the issue 21-18, 21-8 in her favour. The Hyderabadi shuttler will now face Lee Jang Mi.

Sindhu, on the other hand, hardly broke the sweat against Xiaoxin as the World No. 3 wrapped up the issue in just 44 minutes. She will now lock horns with World No. 9 Sung Ji Hyun of South Korea.

India's doubled challenge got over on the second day as men's doubles players Arjun M.R. and Ramchandran Shlok lost to Chinese pair of Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen 11-21, 19-21 while women's double pair Meghana Jakkapudi and Poorvisha S Ram lost to Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajong of Thailand 9-21, 9-21.

--IANS

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