PV Sindhu advances to the quarterfinals of Swizz Open

Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and Ajay Jayram have advanced to the quarterfinals of the singles competition of the Swizz Open Super 300 badminton tournament. In mixed doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also continued their winning run and marched into the quarterfinals. 

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PV Sandhu was up against USA’s Irus Wang who hardly put up a fight and went down to Sindhu in straights sets of 21-13 and 21-14 while the former number one Kidambi Srikant made easy work of Thomas Rouxel. Kidambi hardly broke any sweat in a 21-10, 14-21, 21-14 win over the 50th ranked French. Jayaram had to work hard for his win against the third seeded, Dane Rasmus Gemke but emerged victorious 21-18, 17-21, 21-13. 

Satwik and Ponappa, who reached the semis in Thailand Open 1000 in January defeated the Indonesian pair of Rinov Rivaldy and Pitha Haningtyas Mentari 21-18, 21-16. Second seed Sindhu will take on fifth seed Thai Busanan Ongbamrungphan in the quarter final while Srikanth faces sixth seed Kantaphon Wangcharoen. Jayaram will be up against Kunlavut Vitidsarn, who defeated India’s Sourabh Verma 17-21, 14-21 in his previous game.

Earlier, two-time champion Saina Nehwal crashed out of the tournament after a hard fought 16-21, 21-17, 21-23 loss to Phittayaporn Chaiwan of Thailand.