Sindhu joins Thulasi, Kashyap, Srikanth in quarters

Indian badminton players had a great day at the Commonwealth Games when Pusarla Venkata Sindhu joined Parupalli Kashyap, Kidambi Srikanth, Rajah Menuri Venkata Gurusaidatt and Puthenpurayil Chandrika Thulasi in the singles quarterfinals Thursday night.

Sindhu, India's leading player in the women's singles in the absence of Saina Nehwal, had little difficulty in disposing of Sri Lankan Thilini Hendahewa 21-14, 21-14 in barely 26 minutes to win her round of 16 match at Emirates Arena. Sindhu's quarter-final opponent is Anna Rankin of New Zealand.

Thulasi took half an hour to show Canada's Rachel Honderich the exit door, winning 21-12 21-7, and she will now meet Jing Yi Tee, World No. 33, who has 2-0 head-to-head against the Indian.

Gurusaidatt, who beat Canada's Andrew D'Souza 21-13, 21-9 in 27 minutes, next plays top seeded Malaysian Chong Wei Feng. Guru has had close encounters with Feng, though he is yet to beat him, and hopes to have an even chance in their match Friday.

Kashyap, who took just 24 minutes to outclass Australian Jeff Tho 21-7, 21-8, next takes on World No 47 Daren Liew of Malaysia. The top Indian shuttler lost to Liew twice when the Malaysian was among the top 10 in the world, but beat him when they played last year.

The third Indian in the men's singles quarter-final is Kidambi Srikanth. He had a tough time beating Sri Lankan Niluka Karunaratne, 20-22, 21-16, 21-12, and he will now face Singaporean Derek Wong.

Reigning women's doubles gold medallists Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa also made it to the quarterfinals but not before sweating it out over three games against Australian combination of He Tian Tang and Renuga Veeran 18-21, 21-10, 21-6, the match lasting 41 minutes.

The other Indian men's doubles pair Pranaav Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar lost 13-21 14-21 to Malaysians Wee Kioong Tan and Wei Shem Goh.