Top seed K Srikanth advanced to the semifinals in men's singles but P V Sindhu suffered a heartbreak as she bowed out of the women's singles with a straight-game loss at the USD 120,000 Indonesia Masters Grand Prix Gold tournament here today.
World No. 9 Srikanth, who has qualified for the BWF Super Series Finals, emerged as the lone Indian survivor as he spanked Malaysia's Teck Zhi Soo, seeded 15th, 21-10 21-5 in a match that lasted just 24 minutes.
The 22-year-old from Guntur, who had defeated China's Qiao Bin 21-12 21-15 yesterday, will take on Indonesia's Ginting Anthony.
Two-time bronze medallist at World Championships, Sindhu, who clinched the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold last week, suffered an unexpected 21-23 13-21 loss against He Bingjiao of China in 36 minutes.
Srikanth dished out a superb game of badminton as he didn't allow any chance to Teck to challenge his authority. The Indian opened up 6-0 and 5-0 lead in the first and second games, respectively and marched ahead without much ado to seal a semifinal place.
In women's singles quarterfinals, a lot was expected from Sindhu but the Indian could not stave the challenge from Bingjiao, who lead 10-5 in the opening game.
Even though Sindhu managed to draw parity at 15-15 and then grab a slender 20-19 lead, the Chinese surged ahead to pocket the opening game.
In the second game, Bingjiao led 6-5 and then reeled off nine straight points to dash Sindhu's hope of a comeback in the match.
(REOPENS FGN 4)
World No. 37 Praneeth hardly broke any sweat against Lee, leading all throughout right from the start to end in both the games. The third seeded Korean couldn't put up any fight against the Indian, who jumped to a 10-2 lead in the opening game and then kept moving ahead to pocket the game comfortably.
In the second game, Praneeth surged to a 8-0 lead and then kept moving ahead to slam the door on the Korean.
On Saturday, Lee had defeated top seed Ajay Jayaram of India 21-9 21-8 in the semifinals, while Praneeth had eked out a difficult 22-20 19-21 21-12 win over France's Brice Leverdez.
World No. 23 Manu and Sumeeth, who had beaten Indonesia's Andrei Adistia and Canada's Dong Adam (Xingyu) 21-15 21-19 on Saturday, also didn't face much challenge from Adrian and Toby.
The Indian duo broke off after 3-3 early on in the first game and didn't look back, while in the second game, the local combo tried to put up a better show but they couldn't break the resolve of the Indians, who kept their distance to cross the line comfortably.
