Toyota Thailand Open: Sindhu, Sameer sail in to quarterfinals
Olympic silver medallist Sindhu expectedly outclassed Malaysia's world no. 92 Kisona Selvaduray 21-10,21-12 in a lop-sided second-round contest that lasted just 35 minutes
Bangkok: Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Sameer Verma stormed into the quarterfinals of the Toyota Thailand Open after registering straight-game wins but HS Prannoy bowed out of Super 1000 tournament here on Tuesday.
Olympic silver medallist Sindhu expectedly outclassed Malaysia’s world no. 92 Kisona Selvaduray 21-10,21-12 in a lop-sided second-round contest that lasted just 35 minutes. She will face either Thailand’s Ratchanok Inthanon or Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun next.
World no. 31 Sameer also continued his impressive run, stunning world no. 17 Rasmus Gemke 21-12,21-9 in just 39 minutes for his third victory over the Danish player. The Indian, who had shocked Malaysia’s eighth seed Lee Zii Jia in the opening round, will face third seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark, who received a walkover, in the quarterfinals.
The mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also made it to the quarterfinals with a stunning 22-20,14-21,21-16 win over world no. 17 German duo of Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich in a match that lasted close to an hour.
Satwiksairaj also paired up with Chirag Shetty in the men’s doubles to notch up an upset 21-18,23-21 win over seven seeds Korean combination of Choi Solgyu and Seo Seung Jae.
Prannoy, however, failed to cross the second round hurdle, going down 17-21,18-21 to Malaysia’s Daren Liew, a day after battling through pain to upstage Asian Games champion Jonatan Christie in a gruelling three-game match. Also bowing out of the competition were MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila after losing 9-21,11-21 to English pair of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy.
Earlier, Gemke was no match for Sameer, who showed better control and execution to dominate the proceedings right from the beginning. The Indian opened up a 3-0 lead and kept marching ahead to grab a six-point advantage at the break. Gemke tried his best but couldn’t trouble Sameer, who easily claimed the first game. In the second game, Gemke managed to hold slender leads of 3-1 and 5-3 but Sameer broke off at 6-6 and never looked back.
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