Srikanth, Praneeth move into semis, Sindhu loses at Singapore Open

Indian men's singles shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and B. Sai Praneeth advanced to the semi-finals, while P.V. Sindhu and the mixed doubles pair of B. Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa lost in the quarter-finals of the $350,000 Singapore Open Superseries here on Friday.

Praneeth fought hard to get the better of Thai eighth seed Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk 15-21, 21-14, 21-19 in an hour and 11 minutes at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The Indian will meet South Korean Lee Dong Keun, who got past Indonesian Jonatan Christie 21-18, 21-16.

Srikanth smashed past Chinese fifth seed Shi Yuqi 21-14, 21-16 in 36 minutes to set-up a last four clash against Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, who got the better of Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent 21-19, 21-14.

Olympic 2016 runner-up Sindhu suffered a taming 11-21, 15-21 defeat at the hands of her Rio conqueror Carolina Marin of Spain.

With this win, two-time reigning world champion Marin has taken a 6-5 lead over the Indian in career meetings.

In the semi-final, the fourth-seeded Spanish star will meet South Korean second seed Sung ji Hyun, who got past Chinese sixth seed Sun Yu 21-13, 21-16. The other semi-final will be fought between Chinese Taipei's top seed Tai Tzu Ying and United States' Beiwen Zhang.

Sumeeth-Ashwini couldn't mount a challenge against the Chinese third seeded pair of Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong, who took only 27 minutes to win 21-11, 21-8.

--IANS

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