Basel, March 25: Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy stormed into the semi-finals of the Swiss Open badminton tournament with straight-game victories in their respective women and men singles events here on Friday.
While Sindhu, seeded second in the tournament, made short work of fifth seed Michelle Li of Canada 21-10, 21-19 in 36 minutes, Prannoy beat compatriot and former Commonwealth Games gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap 21-16, 21-16 in a quarter-final match that lasted 43 minutes.
Former world champion Sindhu will meet unseeded Supanida Katethong of Thailand in the semi-finals on Saturday.
Prannoy, on the other hand, faces third seeded Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the semi-finals. The Indonesian beat another Indian Sameer Verma 21-17, 21-14 in a quarter-final match that lasted 39 minutes.
Sindhu was in good touch as she simply outplayed her opponent in the first game. After the scores were levelled at 3-3, Sindhu grabbed seven straight points twice. She was ahead 10-3 first and then was leading 17-4 before pocketing the first game.
The second game was a close affair with none of the two shuttlers giving an inch to the other. Sindhu was trailing 0-3 but quickly made it 4-4. She was ahead 7-4 but the Canadian fought back to reduce the gap to just one point.
Sindhu again roared back to a 14-9 lead before Li made a remarkable comeback to make it 16-16. The second game could have gone either way as the scores were levelled 17-17, 18-18 and 19-19 but ultimately it was Sindhu who held her nerves to grab it 21-19 and pocket the match.
In the women’s doubles, the Indian pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy went down fighting to the Malaysian duo of Vivian Hoo and Chiew Sien Kim in the quarter-finals. The Indian pair lost 20-22, 21-23 in 55 minutes.
Also, ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal exited the Swiss Open after losing her women’s singles second round to lower-ranked Kisona Selvaduray of Malaysia.
The 23rd-ranked Indian could not maintain the consistency she showed in the first game to lose 21-17, 13-21, 13-21 against her 64th-ranked opponent on Thursday night. (PTI)
