Swiss Open: PV Sindhu, Srikanth, Satwik-Ashwini and others progress to quarterfinals

Basel, Mar 5: Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, former men’s singles champion Kidambi Srikanth, the mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa, Sai Praneeth, and Ajay Jayaram progressed to the quarterfinals of the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament here on Thursday.

  

 

 

Sindhu defeated her opponent Iris Wang of the USA in straight sets 21-13, 21-14. Reigning women's world champion Sindhu will take on Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand. Meanwhile, the unseeded shuttler, Jayaram, defeated third-seeded Rasmus Gemke of Denmark to advance into the quarterfinals with a 21-18, 17-21, 21-13 win against the third-best Dane currently after Viktor Axelsen and Anders Antonsen. Praneeth joined Srikanth in the run-up to the Olympic Qualification as defeated Spain's Pablo Abian by 21-12, 21-17 and secured his place in the quarterfinals.

 

 

 

  

While fourth seed Srikanth, who had won the title in 2015, notched up a 21-10 14-21 21-14 victory over world no.50 Thomas Rouxel of France. The world no.19 pair of Satwik and Ashwini defeated the Indonesian combination of Rinov Rivaldy and Pitha Haningtyas Mentari 21-18 21-16 in another second-round match.

 

 

Srikanth, a former world no 1, will face either sixth seeded Thai Kantaphon Wangcharoen or Netherland’s Mark Caljouw in the last-eight stage. Satwik and Ashwini, who reached the semifinals at Toyota Thailand Open Super 1000 in January, will meet the winner of the match between fifth-seeded Malaysians Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing and Germany’s Jones Ralfy Jansen and Kilasu Ostermeyer.

 

 

Earlier, two-time former champion Saina Nehwal bowed out of the tournament after a hard-fought first-round loss in the women’s singles opening round on Wednesday night. The London Olympic bronze-medallist battled for 58 minutes before going down 16-21 21-17 21-23 to Phittayaporn Chaiwan of Thailand.