India’s PV Sindhu set up a mouth-watering quarterfinal clash against compatriot Saina Nehwal as the two registered contrasting victories in the second round of the India Open Super Series on Thursday.
Sindhu overcame a stiff challenge from Saena Kawakami 21-16, 23-21, while Nehwal stormed in to the last-eight stage with an easy 21-14, 21-12 win over Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong.
Sindhu was trailing 4-6 against Saena Kawakami in the opening game but recovered to take the game with a five-point advantage.
She trailed her Japanese opponent early into the second game as well. But, again recovered to take the lead. The Japanese though did not let the second game go without a fight and regained the lead at 15-14. Sindhu maintained her composure to regain the lead. Kawakami stretched the game into a tie-breaker, only to see Rio Games silver-medallist prevail 23-21.
By contrast Nehwal enjoyed a relatively easy outing. She did not let the lead slip and dominated her opponent through the tie.
Earlier, Olympic champion Carolina Marin eased past India’s Rituparna Das 21-13, 21-11 to advance.
Meanwhile in the men’s draw, Sameer Verma continued his rampaging run at the India Open, notching up another stunning win over higher-ranked Hun Yu of Hong Kong in straight games to enter the quarterfinals and emerge as the lone Indian hope in men’s singles competition.
The Hong Kong Open finalist, Sameer reached the quarterfinals with a shocking 21-17 21-15 win in a 40-minute match.
The 22-year-old from Dhar, who had clinched his maiden Grand Prix Gold event at Syed Modi Internationals in January, will face either Denmark’s Anders Antonsen or German Marc Zwiebler next.
Former champion Kidambi Srikanth also crashed out after losing to Rio Olympics bronze medallist Viktor Axelsen 21-7 21-12 in a contest that lasted just 25 minutes.
Among others, B Sai Praneeth failed to match seventh seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei and was outclassed 14-21 16-21 in 36 minutes. The elder of the Verma brothers, Sourabh, however, lost 19-21 21-14 20-22 to sixth seed Ng Ka Long Angus.
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