Sindhu, Saina through to quarters in Singapore Open

TIL Desk Sports/ The Indian trio of P V Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth continued their impressive run and progressed to the quarter-finals in the US $355,000 Singapore Open on Thursday. Fourth-seeded Sindhu, a Rio Olympics silver medallist, took 39 minutes to get the better of world number 22 Mia Blichfeldt 21-13, 21-19 and register her second straight win over the Danish shuttler, who had clinched the Spain Masters earlier this year.

World number 6 Sindhu will next face China’s Cai Yanyan, a 2017 BWF World Junior Championships bronze medallist. Sixth seed Srikanth survived a scare in the second game before overcoming Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus 21-12, 23-21. He will meet top seed Japan’s Kento Mamota, who ended H S Prannoy’s campaign with a 21-11 21-11 victory.

Sixth seed Saina had to work hard in her bid to avenge a Malaysia Open first-round loss to Pornpawee Chochuwong before pulling off a thrilling 21-16, 18-21, 21-19 win over the Thai shuttler in the second round. The London Olympic bronze medallist will next square off against second seeded Japanese Nozomi Okuhara.