Former world champion PV Sindhu and Paris Olympic semifinalist Lakshya Sen reached the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Masters after securing comfortable wins in their respective second-round matches here on Thursday.
Sindhu clinched a 21-19, 21-18 victory over Denmark’s Line Kjaerfeldt in her pre-quarterfinal in 43 minutes, while Lakshya registered a 21-10, 21-11 win over Hong Kong’s Jason Gunawan in a match lasting a little over half an hour.
This was Sindhu’s sixth win over Kjaerfeldt in seven meetings, with her only loss coming at last year’s Sudirman Cup.
Sindhu will next face tournament top seed and world No. 4 Chen Yu Fei of China. The duo have met 13 times so far, with the Chinese shuttler holding a slight edge of 7-6 in the overall head-to-head record.
On Wednesday, two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu, India’s highest-ranked women’s singles player at world No. 13, defeated Japan’s world No. 35 Manami Suizu 22-20, 21-18 in 53 minutes to reach the pre-quarterfinals.
Lakshya, who had registered a 21-13, 16-21, 21-14 win over world No. 23 Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei in his opening-round match on Wednesday, will next face Thailand’s Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul. Teeraratsakul upset Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medallist Lee Zii Jia 15-21, 21-17, 21-8 in the pre-quarterfinals on Friday.
Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth, who reached the round of 16 with a 21-15, 21-23, 24-22 victory over Japan’s Koki Watanabe, will be in action later in the day against Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen. Anmol Kharb, meanwhile, takes on Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in the women’s singles second round.
World Championships bronze medallist HS Prannoy and rising star Tanvi Sharma crashed out of the BWF Super tournament after losing their first-round matches on Wednesday.
Kiran George also lost his men’s singles opener in straight games to Indonesia’s Moh. Zaki Ubaidillah, 21-17, 21-14. India’s mixed doubles pairs Dhruv Kapila/Tanisha Crasto and Rohan Kapoor/Ruthvika Shivani Gadde also exited after first-round losses.
— IANS
