Bali, Nov 19: Premier Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth continued their impressive run and registered dominant victories to enter the semi-finals of their respective events at the Indonesia Masters Super 750 badminton tournament here on Friday.
While reigning world champion Sindhu, seeded third, scripted a convincing 21-13, 21-10 win over Turkey’s Neslihan Yigit in 35 minutes in the women’s singles quarter-finals, Srikanth made short work of compatriot HS Prannoy 21-7, 21-18 in the men’s last eight fixture.
With the win the two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu extended her dominating head-to-head record against the Turkish shuttler to 4-0. The 26-year-old from Hyderabad, ranked seven, had beaten Yigit last month as well in the Denmark Open.
In the men’s event, former world No. 1 Srikanth was at his vintage best and gave away just 7 points in a lop-sided first game.
The second game was more evenly matched as Prannoy, who claimed an upset win over Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Victor Axelsen earlier, made a strong recovery.
Prannoy started the proceedings aggressively, racing to a 5-2 lead but Srikanth came from behind to snatch the lead at the mid-game interval.
Having gained momentum, the former world No. 1 then extended his lead to 15-12 and despite Prannoy levelling the proceedings once again, Srikanth sealed the match to reach his second consecutive semi-finals.
Srikanth will now take on either Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn or Denmark’s Anders Antonsen, who is seeded third, in the semi-finals.
Sindhu, who has got relatively easy opponents until now, has a tough match ahead as she will face top seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan.
Although Yamaguchi is currently ranked third in the world and is the top seed, Sindhu has a superior 12-7 head-to-head record against the Japanese shuttler and has won both the meetings between the two this year. (PTI)
