Indonesia Masters 2018: Saina Nehwal to meet PV Sindhu, big win by Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty

Indian shuttle queens Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu both won their second round matches in convincing fashion to set up a blockbuster quarter-final showdown at the Indonesia Masters 2018 in Jakarta, Indonesia on Thursday. Joining them was the India No. 1 men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who continue their string of upsets at this BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament.

A day after coming back from a game down to beat the World No. 8 Chen Yufei in the first round, Nehwal had absolutely no problems against the 21st ranked Chen Xiaoxin of China, except for the last few points when she needed to close out the match.

The former World No. 1 led 19-10 in the second game and looked headed for a comfortable win before the Chinese started her comeback. With seven points on the trot, Xiaoxin closed the gap to just two points when she trailed 17-19.

But Saina was able to stave off the late surge just in time to register a 21-12, 21-18 win in 37 minutes.

Sindhu beats former world junior champion

Second seeded PV Sindhu was equally impressive in her second round outing against the 38th ranked Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia. Goh had been the world junior champion in 2015 and has a prolific record in the junior stage.

But Sindhu proved to be a hurdle too high as the World No. 3 posted a 21-12, 21-9 win in just 31 minutes.

The young Malaysian fought back in the initial stages and trailed Sindhu by just one point at 3-4 only to see her highly-accomplished opponent race ahead to 7-3 and build an 11-7 lead at the mid-game interval.

Goh kept it a four-point gap till 9-13 following which Sindhu hit the accelerator button and wrapped the opening game soon after.

The second game was a bit competitive only till the mid-game break. Goh lagged behind three points at 4-7 before Sindhu surged to 11-7 at the interval. But the youngster got absolutely no chance after that as the irrepressible Indian conceded only two more points and finished the match.

Rankireddy and Shetty upset World No. 17 pair

The India No. 1 pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty continue their giant-killing run at this tournament as they upset the World No. 17 pair of Liao Min Chun and Su Ching Heng of Chinese Taipei, 21-17, 21-16.

It was the second consecutive straight-game win for the young Indian duo over a top-20 pair. The 32nd ranked Indians stunned the World No. 10 combine of Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko 21-15, 21-17 in the first round on Wednesday.

Rankireddy and Shetty, who reached a couple of Superseries quarter-finals last year, will meet the fourth seeds Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding of Denmark for a place in the semi-finals. Interestingly, the Indians had got the better of the Danish duo in their last meeting at the French Open in October.