Reigning world champion PV Sindhu reached the Indonesia Open Super 1000 quarterfinals with a straight-games win against Germany’s Yvonne Li in Bali on Thursday.
India’s men’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also made their way to the quarterfinals with a 21-15, 19-21, 23-21 victory in an hour and 15 minutes against Korea’s Seungjae Seo and Minhyuk Kang where they saved two match points.
In men’s singles, India’s B Sai Praneeth defeated France’s Christo Popov 21-17, 14-21, 21-19 in an hour and 23 minutes to book his spot in the quarter-finals.
Sai Praneeth will now face second seed Viktor Axelsen, who beat India’s Srikanth Kidambi 21-14, 21-18 in 37 mins in the round of 16. Srikanth tested the reigning Olympic champ in the second game but paid the price for committing too many errors.
Sindhu, seeded third in the tournament, needed just 37 minutes to defeat her German opponent 21-12, 21-18.
Up against Li for the first time, world No 7 Sindhu seemed to be in complete control from the beginning. From 9-7, she won seven straight points. Li made a good recovery in the second game and it was evidently more even. But Sindhu persisted and did not let the German gain an advantage over her, staying in the lead for the entirety.
This is how the two games panned out:
It was a solid win for Sindhu despite Yvonne Li closing things down later on in the second game.
She now faces the winner of Spain’s Beatriz Corrales and Korea’s Sim Yujin (who had defeated sixth seed Michelle Li in the opening round). Both players are ranked outside top 50 (55 and 54).
Satwik and Chirag led at the mid-game interval in the second game after taking the opener, but there Korean opponents raised their intensity thereafter to force a decider.
The sixth-seeded Indian pair bounced back to lead in the third game interval as well, but the match kept going back and forth. Satwik and Chirag eventually had to save two match points before securing a gritty win.
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