The match that all Indian badminton fans were waiting for ever since the women's singles draw at the $325,000 BWF Metlife Yonex Sunrise India Open Superseries 2017 was announced, is finally happening. India's top two shuttle queens – Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu – set up a blockbuster quarter-final clash with each other by winning their respective second round matches at the Siri Fort Indoor Stadium in New Delhi on Thursday.
First, it was the sixth-seeded Nehwal, who convincingly beat the Junior World Championships runner-up Pornpawee Chochuwong, 21-14, 21-12 in 34 minutes. The third-seeded Sindhu faced some stiff resistance from another rising youngster, Saena Kawakami, whom she beat 21-16, 23-21 in 40 minutes.
This will be the second time that the two are meeting in any international competition. Their first face-off too came at home at the India Grand Prix Gold final in 2014 which Saina won in straight games.
Sameer Verma keeps the Indian Tricolour flying high
In the men’s singles section, Sameer Verma kept the Indian Tricolour flying high by upsetting the World No. 15 Hu Yun, 21-17, 21-15 in 40 minutes. The Syed Modi International champion is the only Indian to advance to the last-eight in that category. Sameer will next face the World No. 26 Anders Antonsen for a place in the semi-finals.
Sameer’s elder brother, Sourabh bowed out narrowly in a thriller. After losing the opening game to the sixth seed NG Ka Long Angus, the reigning national champion made a strong comeback but ultimately lost, 19-21, 21-14, 20-22 in a 59-minute battle.
While Sai Praneeth lost 14-21, 16-21 to the seventh-seeded Chou Tien Chen, the 2015 champion Srikanth Kidambi succumbed to a 7-21, 12-21 defeat to the third seed and Rio Olympic bronze medallist Viktor Axelsen in a rematch of the 2015 final that the Indian had won.
In women’s singles, national champion Rituparna Das too was also shown the exit doors with a 13-21, 11-21 loss to the top seed and Olympic champion Carolina Marin.
In doubles, Sikki Reddy had a double whammy. She and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 15-21, 10-21 to the fourth-seeded Thai combine of Puttita Supajirakul and Sapsiree Taerattanachai in women’s doubles. In the mixed doubles section, she and Pranaav Jerry Chopra could not do justice to their seventh seeding and made they way out with a fighting 18-21, 19-21 loss to the 24th ranked Russian pair of Evgenij Dremin and Evgenia Dimova.
The other Indian women’s doubles pair of Shruti Mundada and Anoushka Parikh crumbled to a 5-21, 10-21 loss as well at the hands of the third seeds Naoko Fukuman and Kurumi Yonao of Japan.
