Srikanth and Sindhu advance in Thailand Open
Former world number 1 Kidambi Srikanth stunned eighth seed Loh Kean Yew in straight games, while PV Sindhu cruised into the Thailand Open pre-quarterfinals
Star shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu progressed to the men’s and women’s singles second round with straight game wins in a mixed day for India at the Thailand Open Super 500 tournament here on Wednesday.
Srikanth, a former world number 1, stunned eighth seed Loh Kean Yew of Singapore 21-14 21-15 in 30 minutes, while Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, saw off Tung Ciou-Tong of Chinese Taipei.
Srikanth will face Chinese Taipei’s Su Li Yang, while Sindhu will meet Denmark’s Amalie Schulz in the round of 16.
Ayush Shetty, a finalist at the Asia Championships, fought hard before going down 13-21 21-17 4-21 against Japan’s sixth seed Kodai Naraoka, while Tharun Mannepalli lost 12-21 16-21 to another Japanese Koki Watanabe. Unnati Hooda and Anmol Kharb too displayed their fighting spirit before narrowly missing out against Thailand’s fourth seed Pornpawee Chochuwong and second seed Chen Yu Fei of China respectively.
While Hooda went down 21-11 17-21 16-21 to Chochuwong, Kharb suffered a 21-19 13-21 18-21 loss to the Tokyo Olympic champion.
Later in the day, seventh seed Lakshya Sen, a two-time All England finalist, will take on Singapore’s Jia Heng Jason Teh, while Malvika Bansod, Isharani Baruah and Tanvi Sharma will also compete in women’s singles.
In mixed doubles, pairs of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto, Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde, and Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh are also in fray.
