Birmingham, Aug 6: Young Lakshya Sen recorded another comfortable win but double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth had to work hard to enter the badminton semifinals of the Commonwealth Games here on Saturday.
World number 10 Sen beat Mauritius’ Julien Georges Paul 21-12 21-11 after Sindhu and Srikanth struggled past Malaysia’s Goh Wei Jin and England’s Toby Penty in women’s and men’s singles quarterfinals to stay on course for an individual CWG medal.
A former world champion, Sindhu, who had won a bronze and silver in the last two editions, registered a come-from-behind 19-21 21-14 21-18 win over Goh, ranked 60th, to enter her third successive semifinals at the CWG.
World championships silver medallist Srikanth, too, was far from convincing during his 21-19 21-17 win over the left-handed Penty, ranked 54th in the world.
The 20-year-old Sen will next face Jia Heng Teh, while Srikanth will look to extract revenge on Malaysia’s Ng Tze Yong, who had defeated him in the mixed team final.
Sindhu, on the other hand, will have to get past Singapore’s world number 18 Jia Min Yeo to inch closer to a maiden gold. The Indian had beaten her at the 2019 French Open.
In women’s singles, young Aakarshi Kashyap’s CWG debut ended with a 10-21 7-21 defeat to Scotland’s Kristy Gilmour, a silver and bronze medallist in the 2014 and 2018 editions respectively.
Sindhu looked slightly shaky against Goh, whom she had defeated in two tight games in the mixed team championship final.
Goh’s attacking prowess was once again on display as she made the Indian work hard. (PTI)
