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World Badminton Championships 2017: PV Sindhu advances to pre-quarterfinals

Ace India shuttler PV Sindhu registered an easy win to advance to the pre-quarterfinals of the women's singles competition in the World Badminton Championship.

World Badminton Championships 2017: PV Sindhu advances to pre-quarterfinals

Glasgow, Aug 23: Ace India shuttler PV Sindhu registered an easy win to advance to the pre-quarterfinals of the women's singles competition in the World Badminton Championship here on Tuesday (August 22).

Sindhu, who received a bye in the first round, notched up a 21-16, 21-14 win over Korea's Kim Hyo Min in the second round.

Sindhu, who twice won bronze medals at the 2013 and 2014 editions, has now extended her head-to-head win record against the Korean to 4-1 in the five meetings.

The 22-year-old Hyderabadi shuttler will face either Russia's Evgeniya Kosetskaya or Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi, 13th seed, in the next round.

Sindhu, the Olympic silver-medallist, came out all guns blazing as she dished out a dominating game to zoom to an 8-0 lead in the first game.

Kim Hyo Min tried to break the one-way traffic and won four straight points but the Indian grabbed a comfortable 11-5 lead.

The Korean reduced the deficit to 8-12 after the break but a determined Sindhu continued to move ahead and reached 16-10 at one stage. She eventually took a 20-14 lead.

Kim saved two game points before the Indian sealed the opening game. The last time Sindhu had faced Kim, she had suffered a straight-game defeat in 2016 Australian Open and the Indian was determined to not allow any hiccups.

In the second game, Sindhu once again opened up an 8-3 lead.

The Korean managed to reduce the margin to 8-10 but the Indian didn't allow Kim to put up a challenge as she kept on surging ahead, reaching 19-12. Sindhu then sealed the issue eventually without much ado, grabbing the final two points.

"I could see she (Kim) was tired by the end. She was playing long rallies and I was okay with it. I last played her a year ago, so I knew her game," Sindhu said.

On whether she was happy with long rallies, Sindhu smiled and said, "That was not my idea. I still wanted to finish fast."

Meanwhile, Indian male shuttlers too did well in their respective games and sailed through the first round.

B Sai Praneeth and Ajay Jayaram registered straight game victories in singles events on Tuesday.

Singapore Open champion Praneeth made a positive start to his campaign, registering a straight-game win over Hong Kong's Wei Nan to reach the second round of men's singles event.

Praneeth, seeded 15th, fought back from 5-9 and 14-16 deficit in the opening game and 10-13 and 15-17 in the second but fought back to eventually see off Wei Nan 21-18 21-17 in a 48-minute match.

The 25-year-old from Hyderabad will next take on Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, who is the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic and World Junior Championships boys' singles bronze medallist.

Experienced Ajay Jayaram also produced a dominating performance to storm into the second round with a 21-14 21-12 win over Austria's Luka Wraber. He will take on The Netherland's Mark Caljouw next.

(With PTI inputs)

Story first published: Wednesday, August 23, 2017, 11:23 [IST]
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