PV Sindhu eases into quarterfinals of Arctic Open

India's star shuttler PV Sindhu defeated Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chin in straight games to make it to the quarterfinals at the Arctic Open 2023

Vantaa: India’s star shuttler PV Sindhu defeated Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chin in straight games to make it to the quarterfinals at the Arctic Open 2023 event in Vantaa, Finland on Thursday.

The two-time Olympic medallist raced to a comfortable 21-11, 21-10 victory without breaking much sweat. Earlier, she had earlier got the better of Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in the first round. Sindhu beat the Japanese shuttler 21-13, 21-6 at the Vantaa Energia Areena.
In their 19th head-to-head match, PV Sindhu defeated Nozomi Okuhara for the 10th time. The two badminton players have previously faced off in the finals of two world championships, with each player coming out on top once.

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In Vantaa on Tuesday, the Indian badminton player was on the back foot at the start and trailed 4-0 after initial exchanges. However, PV Sindhu, 13th in the badminton rankings, utilised her good reach and bounced back to lead the world No. 29 Okuhara 11-6 at the opening break. Sindhu continued the attacking display and took the opening game with ease.

Sindhu’s aggressive approach helped her dominate Okuhara in the second game as well. She led 11-3 at the break and then sealed the match to make it to the round of 16.

In the other women’s singles fixture, Aakarshi Kashyap came from a game down to defeat Lianne Tan of Belgium 18-21, 22-20, 21-18. Kashyap, ranked 41st, will face world No. 11 Wang Zhiyi of China in the round of 16.

On Wednesday, Kidambi Srikanth advanced to round of 16 when his opponent Max Weisskirchen of Germany conceded the matc. Kiran George downed Toma Junior Popov 24-22, 15-21, 21-15 while Mithun Manjunath lost to Weng Hong Yang 19-21, 14-21.

Meanwhile, Harshit Agarwal did not make it to the main draw in the men’s singles. He lost the qualifying fixture to Joakim Oldorff of Finland 21-19, 21-12.

In the mixed doubles, the Indian duo of K Sai Pratheek and Tanisha Crasto suffered a 14-21, 18-21 loss at the hands of Hiroki Midorikawa and Natsu Saito.