Sindhu eases into pre-quarterfinals

 Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu hardly broke any sweat but defending champion Kidambi Srikanth had to toil hard to advance to the pre-quarterfinals of the USD 120,000 Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here on Wednesday.

Sindhu posted an easy 21-9, 21-11 win over compatriot Anura Prabhudesai in a lop-sided women’s singles contest. The third seed Srikanth staved off a spirited challenge from fellow Indian Lakhanee Sarang 15-21, 21-7, 21-14 in his opening men’s singles match before notching up a 21-5, 21-12 win over Malaysia’s Zulhelmi Zulkiffli.

The 21-year-old Sindhu will face another Indian Lalita Dahiya, while Srikanth, who is coming back after recovering from an ankle injury, will face compatriot Ansal Yadav, who beat 16th seed Pratul Joshi 18-21, 21-16, 21-16.

Among other Indians in men’s singles, H S Prannoy, Verma brothers — Sourabh and Sameer, B Sai Praneeth and Harsheel Dhani also reached the third round.

Prannoy brushed aside NVS Vijetha 21-11, 21-9 and Bodhit Joshi 21-16, 21-8 in the first two rounds to set up a clash with Dhani, who defeated Aryamann Tandon 21-12, 21-17.

Praneeth, seeded ninth, beat Aditya Joshi 21-14, 21-9 in the first round and then defeated Ashish Sharma 21-15, 21-10 to make it to the pre-quarters. Sourabh dispatched Rahul Yadav Chittaboina 21-11, 21-17 before beating Shubham Prajapati 21-6 21-10.

Sameer Verma, eighth seed, emerged winner in the opening game after Kartik Jindal retired when he was trailing 1-5 and the Indian then beat K Ajay Kumar 21-13, 21-14.

In women’s singles, Rituparna Das spanked Nepal’s Nangsal Tamang 21-5, 21-6 and will take on eighth seeded Russian Ksenia Polikarpova, who beat India’s Riya Pillai 21-12 21-11.