World Badminton Championships
Basel: Two-time silver medallist P V Sindhu produced yet another commanding performance as she demolished Beiwen Zhang of United States in straight games to advance to the quarterfinals of the BWF World Championships here on Thursday.
Sindhu won 21-14 21-6 in the women’s singles pre-quarterfinals match that lasted just 34 minutes. The fifth seeded Indian had lost to the ninth seeded American opponent in the Indian Open final last year. Sindhu now face second seed Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals. The Indian completely dominated the match, giving no chance to her American opponent. They were levelled 5-5 but from there, Sindhu led all the way to pocket the first game.
The second game was even better for Sindhu as she led all the way from 1-1, taking five straight points to 6-1 and then another six points on the trot to reach 14-5 before wrapping up the match.
In the men’s singles, B Sai Praneeth dished out a superlative performance to stun world no. 8 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting and progress to the quarterfinals but K Srikanth and H S Prannoy suffered defeats to bow out of the showpiece event. Seeded seventh, Srikanth lost 14-21 13-21 against Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand in the pre-quarterfinal match that lasted 40 minutes while Prannoy’s campaign ended with a loss at the hands of world no. 1 Kento Momota of Japan.
Prannoy showed glimpses of brilliance, especially in the opening game, but couldn’t stop Momota from registering a 21-19 21-12 win, his fifth victory over the Indian in as many encounters. World No 19. Praneeth, who had reached the finals at Swiss Open this year, took just 42 minutes to dispatch sixth seeded Anthony of Indonesia 21-19 21-13. (PTI)