P V Sindhu, R M V Gurusaidutt and the women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa led India’s charge by progressing into the quarterfinals of the $200,000 Badminton Asia Championships at the Gimcheon Indoor Stadium here on Thursday.
World No 10 Sindhu finally overcame Japan’s Eriko Hirose 14-21, 21-13, 21-18 for the first time in four meetings in a marathon women’s singles match which lasted an hour and 13 minutes.
In the last eight clash, the 2013 World Championship bronze medallist will take on Thai Ongbumrungpan Busanan, who beat local third seed Yeon Ju Bae. The Indian can take heart from the fact that she has a 2-0 record against the Thai.
Gurusaidutt also progressed to the men’s singles last eight as he beat Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu Wei in their first ever match.
The Indian won 17-21, 21-13, 21-19 in exactly an hour and will face China’s Liu Kai in the next round.
Meanwhile, Jwala and Ashwini struck form at the right time as the combine beat Thai third seeds Aroonkesorn Duanganong and Voravichitchaikul Kunchala 21-11, 21-18 in half an hour to advance to the quarterfinals.
Parupalli Kashyap went down to Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Jen Hao 23-25, 17-21 in exactly an hour.
Srikanth, Kashyap slide
Srikanth and Kashyap dropped a place each in the latest Badminton World Federation rankings released on Thursday.
While Srikanth slipped to 17th, Kashyap slid to 20th.
Saina and Sindhu, however, retained their eighth and 10th positions in the women’s singles rankings.
No Indian figures in the top-25 of men’s, women’s and mixed doubles rankings.
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