Sindhu, Srikanth enter quarters; Lakshya out

SUNCHEON: The third-seeded Sindhu, who is placed seventh in the world rankings, got the better of Aya Ohori (Japan) 21-15, 21-10 in a lop-sided women’s singles Round-of-16 contest. But, it was curtains for Malvika Bansod as she was brushed aside 8-21, 14-21 by Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong in another last-16 encounter.

In the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals, Srikanth saw off Israel’s Misha Zilberman 21-18, 21-6 while World No.9 Lakshya went down 20-22, 9-21 to Indonesian Shesar Hiren Rhustavito.

Meanwhile, in the men’s doubles event, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated the Singapore combination of Hee Yong Kai Terry and Loh Kean Hean 21-15, 21-19 to advance to the last-eight. However, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila retired while lagging 5-8 in the first game against the Indonesia pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan.

Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa’s campaign in mixed doubles ended as they went down fighting 20-22, 21-18, 14-21 to the Chinese combine of Ou Xuan Yi and Huang Ya Qiong.