<div align="justify">Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the women's singles competition after defeating Korea's Kim Hyo Min in the second round of the World Championship here today.<br /><br />Sindhu, who twice won bronze medals at the 2013 and 2014 editions, notched up a 21-16 21-14 win over Kim in a 49-minute match, to extend her head-to-head record against the Korean to 4-1 in five meetings.<br /><br />The 22-year-old, who received a bye in the opening round, will face either Russian's Evgeniya Kosetskaya or Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi, the 13th seed, in the next round.<br /><br />Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth also made a positive start to his campaign, registering a straight-game win over Hong Kong's Wei Nan to reach the second round of men's singles event.<br /><br />Praneeth seeded 15th, fought back from 5-9 and 14-16 in the opening game and then erased a deficit of 10-13 and 15-17 in the second game to eventually see off Wei Nan 21-18 21-17 in a 48-minute match.<br /><br />The 25-year-old from Hyderabad will next take on Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, who is the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic and World Junior Championships boys' singles bronze medallist.<br /><br />"I was expecting a tough match. I changed my game but the match was getting close. He made some small mistakes and I won. I am happy that I could pull off the match today as I know this is a tough match. Tomorrow it would be another difficult match and I hope I can win," Praneeth told PTI.<br /><br />India's top mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy seeded 15th, who had won the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold title, defeated Indo-Malaysian combo of Prajakta Sawant and Yogendran Khrishnan 21-12 21-19.<br /><br />However, disappointment was in store for India in the other mixed doubles matches as B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa, and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Maneesha K suffered contrasting losses to bow out of the event.<br /><br />Sumeeth and Ashwini, who had reached the finals of Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in January, went down fighting 17-21 21- 18 5-21 to 13th seeded Chinese pair of Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping, while Satwiksairaj and Maneesha lost 20-22 18-21 to 14th seeded Denmark duo of Mathias Christiansen and Sara Thygesen.<br /><br />The last time Sindhu had faced Kim, she had suffered a straight-game defeat at 2016 Australian Open and the Indian came out all cylinders blazing today as she dished out a dominating game to zoom to an 8-0 lead in the first game.<br /><br />Kim Hyo Min tried to break the one-way traffic and won four straight points but the Indian grabbed a comfortable 11-5 lead.<br /><br />The Korean reduced the gap to 8-12 after the break but a determined Sindhu continued to move ahead and reached 16-10 at one stage. She eventually took a 20-14 lead. Kim saved two game points before the Indian sealed the opening game.<br /><br />In the second game, Sindhu once again opened up an 8-3 lead. The Korean managed to reduce the margin to 8-10 but the Indian didn't allow Kim to put up a challenge as she kept on surging ahead, reaching 19-12.<br /><br />She sealed the issue eventually without much ado, grabbing the final two points.<br /><br />National champion Rituparna Das also emerged victories in her opening round match yesterday as her opponent Finland's Airi Mikkela retired after lagging 0-2 in the first game. <br /></div>
<div align="justify">Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the women's singles competition after defeating Korea's Kim Hyo Min in the second round of the World Championship here today.<br /><br />Sindhu, who twice won bronze medals at the 2013 and 2014 editions, notched up a 21-16 21-14 win over Kim in a 49-minute match, to extend her head-to-head record against the Korean to 4-1 in five meetings.<br /><br />The 22-year-old, who received a bye in the opening round, will face either Russian's Evgeniya Kosetskaya or Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi, the 13th seed, in the next round.<br /><br />Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth also made a positive start to his campaign, registering a straight-game win over Hong Kong's Wei Nan to reach the second round of men's singles event.<br /><br />Praneeth seeded 15th, fought back from 5-9 and 14-16 in the opening game and then erased a deficit of 10-13 and 15-17 in the second game to eventually see off Wei Nan 21-18 21-17 in a 48-minute match.<br /><br />The 25-year-old from Hyderabad will next take on Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, who is the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic and World Junior Championships boys' singles bronze medallist.<br /><br />"I was expecting a tough match. I changed my game but the match was getting close. He made some small mistakes and I won. I am happy that I could pull off the match today as I know this is a tough match. Tomorrow it would be another difficult match and I hope I can win," Praneeth told PTI.<br /><br />India's top mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy seeded 15th, who had won the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold title, defeated Indo-Malaysian combo of Prajakta Sawant and Yogendran Khrishnan 21-12 21-19.<br /><br />However, disappointment was in store for India in the other mixed doubles matches as B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa, and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Maneesha K suffered contrasting losses to bow out of the event.<br /><br />Sumeeth and Ashwini, who had reached the finals of Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in January, went down fighting 17-21 21- 18 5-21 to 13th seeded Chinese pair of Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping, while Satwiksairaj and Maneesha lost 20-22 18-21 to 14th seeded Denmark duo of Mathias Christiansen and Sara Thygesen.<br /><br />The last time Sindhu had faced Kim, she had suffered a straight-game defeat at 2016 Australian Open and the Indian came out all cylinders blazing today as she dished out a dominating game to zoom to an 8-0 lead in the first game.<br /><br />Kim Hyo Min tried to break the one-way traffic and won four straight points but the Indian grabbed a comfortable 11-5 lead.<br /><br />The Korean reduced the gap to 8-12 after the break but a determined Sindhu continued to move ahead and reached 16-10 at one stage. She eventually took a 20-14 lead. Kim saved two game points before the Indian sealed the opening game.<br /><br />In the second game, Sindhu once again opened up an 8-3 lead. The Korean managed to reduce the margin to 8-10 but the Indian didn't allow Kim to put up a challenge as she kept on surging ahead, reaching 19-12.<br /><br />She sealed the issue eventually without much ado, grabbing the final two points.<br /><br />National champion Rituparna Das also emerged victories in her opening round match yesterday as her opponent Finland's Airi Mikkela retired after lagging 0-2 in the first game. <br /></div>