JAKARTA, JAN 24,
Indian trio of P.V. Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth eased into Indonesia Masters’ quarterfinal with straight-game victories over their respective opponents, in Jakarta on Thursday.
Second seed Sindhu defeated local favourite Gregoria Mariska Tunjung 23-21 21-7 in 37 minutes to make the last-eight stage of her season-opener.
The 23-year-old from Hyderabad, who had won silver medals at the Commonwealth Games, World Championship and Asian Games before clinching the World Tour Final title last year, is expected to take on Spain’s Carolina Marin next.
London bronze medallist Saina too stormed into the last eight with a 21-17 21-15 win over Indonesia’s Fitriani Fitriani, her fifth overall.
Eighth seed Srikanth recorded a clinical 21-14 21-9 win over Japan’s Asian Games bronze medallist Kenta Nishimoto.
Srikanth, who had reached the quarterfinals at Malaysia Masters last week, will face either Indonesia’s Asian Games champion Jonatan Christie or China’s reigning All England champion Shi Yuqi.
However, men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy went down fighting 14-21 21-17 10-21 to fifth seeded Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark.
Sindhu, who had to pull out all stops against former Olympic champion Li Xuerui in the opening match, faced stiff competition in the extended opening game against Tunjung.
However, she completely dominated the second to wrap up the match in 37 minutes and extend her unbeaten record against Tunjung to 5-0.
Srikanth, who had lost to the Japanese in their last meeting but held a 3-1 overall edge, quickly erased a 2-5 deficit early on and never looked back after grabbing a 11-8 lead at the break in the opening game.
The Indian dominated the second game with an initial 6-0 lead which he swelled to 18-8 after the break to eventually wrap up lop-sided contest in half an hour.
