Korea Super Series: Sindhu to take on Japan’s Mitani in semis

TIL Desk Sports/ Rio Olympic silver-medallist P.V. Sindhu will aim to book her place in the semi-finals of the Korea Super Series badminton tournament when she takes on Minatsu Mitani of Japan in the last-eight clash of the women’s singles event here on Friday.

Yesterday, Sindhu produced a rich vein of form as she thumped Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand 22-20, 21-17 in a second-round encounter that lasted 42 minutes. In men’s singles event, Sameer Verma will square off with Korean Son Wan Ho for a place in the last-four.

Hong Kong Super Series finalist Sameer made it to the quarter-finals with an easy 21-19, 21-13 triumph over Hong Kong’s Wong Wing Ki Vincent in a 42-minute clash. Meanwhile, the Indian men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will clash with the Japanese duo Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda.

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated Taiwanese duo of Lee Jhe-Huei and Lee Yang 23-21, 16-21, 21-8. Earlier, ace Indian shuttlers B. Sai Praneeth and Parupalli Kashyap suffered a major blow as they were knocked out of the ongoing tournament after going down in their respective second rounds.

Praneeth failed to replicate his brilliant opening round performance and slumped to a 13-21, 24-26 defeat at the hands of seventh-seed Tzu Wei, while Kashyap was stunned by top-seed Wan Ho 16-21, 21-17, 16-21.