Saarbrucken (Germany), Oct 29 Double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu stormed into the women’s singles quarterfinals of the Hylo Open Super 500 badminton tournament with a commanding straight-game win, while compatriots Malvika Bansod and Isharani Baruah bowed out, here on Thursday.
Later in the day, India’s top-ranked men’s singles player Lakshya Sen too entered the quarterfinals with a 21-15 18-21 21-12 victory over compatriot Kiran George in their round of 16 contest. The match lasted 54 minutes.
Second seed Sindhu defeated France’s Rosy Oktavia Pancasari 21-9, 21-6 in just 26 minutes in their women’s singles second-round match.
Fresh from her runner-up finish at the French Open, former world champion Sindhu dominated proceedings, winning 42 of the 57 points played and restricting her opponent to just 15.
Sindhu, who had beaten Prakriti Bharath in the opening round, will face Amalie Schulz in the quarterfinals.
Malvika, meanwhile, went down to Canada’s Wen Yu Zhang 11-21, 17-21 in 31 minutes.
The Indian struggled to match Zhang in the opening game and could not force a decider despite a better showing in the second.
Isharani also made an exit, losing to eighth seed Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark 14-21, 19-21 in a 39-minute contest.
Isharani fought harder in the second game but the Danish shuttler held on to seal the match in straight games.
The other Indians in action later in the day include sixth seed Unnati Hooda, who faces Denmark’s Frederikke Ostergaard, and Anmol Kharb, who will meet third seed Line Christophersen of Denmark in women’s singles.
(PTI News)
