Srikanth storms into semis, Sindhu out

Rising Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth stormed into the $300,000 Singapore Open Super Series men's singles semi-finals bettering a higher ranked opponent but compatriots P.V. Sindhu and B. Sai Praneeth crashed out in straight games here Friday.

The 21-year-old Srikanth played a marathon quarter-final lasting an hour and three minutes to overcome Hong Kong's World No.14 Hun Yu 17-21, 21-14, 21-19 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. With the win, the World No.25 Indian took a 2-0 lead in their career meetings.

The previous time they met was at the Malaysia Open Super Series Premier in January where the Hyderabadi also won in the deciding game.

In the last-four clash, Srikanth will go up against Malaysian top seed and World No.1 Lee Chong Wei, who won the India Open last week in New Delhi. The two-time Olympic silver medallist has won the only match the two played last year at Hong Kong.

Later, Sindhu showed promise at the start of her match but eventually ran out of steam against Chinese second seed Yihan Wang. Though the former World Champion struggled in the first game, she left no stone unturned to thrash the eighth seeded Sindhu in the second game to win 21-19, 21-15 in 37 minutes.

With the win, the current women's singles World No.3 has taken a 2-1 lead in their head-to-head.

In the other men's singles encounter, Srikanth's friend and academy mate Sai could not match up to his fifth seeded Chinese opponent Du Pengyu, who took only 39 minutes to ease into the semi-finals.

World No.7 Du, who reached the India Open Super Series semis last week, beat Sai with the scoreline of 21-15 in both the games to take a 2-0 career advantage.