Kidambi Srikanth beats Sai Praneeth to enter Madrid Masters quarters
Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth progressed to the men's singles quarterfinals of Madrid Masters badminton tournament with a straight game win over compatriot B Sai Praneeth here on Thursday. World no. 21 Srikanth, seeded fifth, got the better of his 49th ranked Indian compatriot 21-15 21-12 in a second round match.
However, a tough contest awaits the former world No. 1 in the quarterfinals as he is pitted against top seed Kenta Nishimoto of Japan. Nishimoto was handed a walkover by France's Arnaud Merkle in their second round contest. Kiran George, Priyanshu Rajawat and Sameer Verma are the other Indian shuttlers in fray in men's singles.
Earlier, PV Sindhu advanced to the second round in the women's singles at the Spain Masters 2023 tournament in Madrid on Wednesday. The two-time Olympic medallist defeated Switzerland's Jenjira Stadelmann 21-10, 21-14 in a 31-minute affair. Having already defeated Jenjira Stadelmann at the Swiss Open 2023, PV Sindhu has now beaten the European shuttler twice this month.
But the doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty withdrew from the tournament after an injury to the former. Double Olympic medallist and former world champion Sindhu made short work of Switzerland's Jenjira Stadelmann 21-10 21-4.
World Championship silver medallist Srikanth defeated Sitthikom Thammassin of Thailand 21-11 25-27 23-21 in his round of 32 match. The Indian duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag were up against Japanese pair Ayato Endo and Yuta Takei, only three days after winning a historic Swiss Open title, in their round of 32 match.
The Indian pair withdrew following what looked like a knee injury to Satwiksairaj who was seen speaking to the officials and drawing their attention to his left knee. It was during the break of the first game and the Indians were trailing 9-11.
Meanwhile, Aakarshi Kashyap defeated sixth seed Michelle Li of Canada 12-21 21-15 21-18 in her first round match. Ashmita Chaliha beat Frenchwoman Leonice Huet 21-12 22-20. The women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost their first round contest against Japan's Rena Miyaura and Ayako Sakuramoto. In another men's singles match, B Sai Praneeth beat Jan Louda 21-16 18-21 21-12. Priyanshu Rajawat won his men's singles match against Victor Svendsen 18-21, 21-16 21-11. Kiran George beat compatriot Mithun Manjunath 21-16, 21-14.
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