PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth reach quarter-finals of Indonesia Masters

PV Sindhu has had a good last 30 days in the sport

Macau Open champion PV Sindhu continued with her impressive form as she stormed into the quarter-finals of the $120,000 Indonesia Masters Grand Prix Gold at the Gedung Graha Cakrawala in Malang, Indonesia on Thursday. Joining her was the men’s singles top seed Kidambi Srikanth, who won two rounds to book his place in the last-eight. But the other Indians in the fray – third seed HS Prannoy and eighth seed RMV Gurusaidutt – bowed out.

The women’s singles top seed PV Sindhu hardly broke a sweat as she took just 24 minutes to thrash her opponent, Wulan Cahya Utami Sukuputri of Indonesia, 21-12, 21-9. The 20-year-old, who also reached the Denmark Open final this year, will next face World No. 67 He Bingjiao of China for a place in the semi-finals.

Kidambi Srikanth, meanwhile, notched two victories in contrasting styles for a quarter-final berth. The Indian star, who had been struggling for quite some time, laboured to a 21-14, 17-21, 25-23 victory over local lad Saputra Vicky Angga in his first match of the day. The match lasted for 1 hour and 5 minutes.

Srikanth was much sharper in his second match and registered a 21-12, 21-15 win over China’s Qiao Bin in 34 minutes. He will take on the 15th seed Teck Zhi Soo of Malaysia in the quarter-finals on Friday.

HS Prannoy and RMV Gurusaidutt, however, did not share the same fate as both went down in three-game matches. The 23-year-old Prannoy fought back to take the second game in his second round match against China’s Shi Yuqi but ultimately lost 12-21, 22-20, 13-21 in 54 minutes.

2014 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Gurusaidutt prevailed over Singaporean shuttler Kean Yew Loh 21-19, 19-21, 21-15 in his second round match. But the 25-year-old fell short in his Round of 16 clash as he succumbed to the 12th seeded Malaysian Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin 14-21, 21-17, 15-21 in 50 minutes.