Swiss Open: Srikanth, Rajawat advance to QF; Sindhu, Lakshya crash out

BASEL: Ace Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth and younster Priyanshu Rajawat have advanced to the quartefinals of the BWF Swiss open, Super 300 badminton tournament.

Srikanth, ranked 27th in the world, got the better of the world no 10 Malaysian Lee Zii Jia in straight games 21-16, 21-15 in just 36 minutes. Rajawat, on the other hand, defeated world No. 33 Lei Lanxi of China in straight games 21-14, 21-13.

The 22-year-old Rajawat had earlier pulled off an upset against World No. 14 Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong in the opening round. Lee was a finalist at the India Open at the beginning of the year.

Srikanth will next face Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei, who ousted Laksya Sen with a 21-17, 21-15 win in straight games. Rajawat will be up against another Taipei shuttler Chou Tien Chen.

Another men’s single shuttler Kiran George also booked a spot in the quarterfinals after a hard-fought 18-21, 22-20, 21-18 win over Frenchman Alex Lanier.

He will next play Rasmus Gemke of Denmark for a place in the semifinals.

Meanwhile, two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu’s campaign ended in the pre-quarterfinals after losing to Japan’s Tokoma Miyazaki here.

Sindhu suffered a 21-16, 19-21,16-21 loss against the world no 27 Japanese shuttler in a match that lasted for one-hour and 19 minutes.

This was her second round of 16 loss in a row as the Indian ace suffered a second-round loss in the All England Open last week.

In the women’s doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also moved to the last eight. The Indian duo defeated compatriots Priya Konjengbam and Shruti Mishra 21-10, 21-12.

Treesa and Gayatri will now take on Australian pair Setyana Mapasa and Angela Yu.

Tanisha Castro and Ashwini Ponnappa, however, crashed out following a 17-21, 16-21 defeat to Japanese shuttlers Rui Hirokami and Yuna Kato.

India’s mixed doubles campaign also ended with B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy losing 11-21, 14-21 to the Dutch duo of Robin Tabeling and Selena Piek while Sathish Kumar Karunakaran-Aadya Variyath suffered a loss against Malaysian third seeds Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei 17-21, 14-21.