All England Open: PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy cruise into quarter-finals, Srikanth ousted

London, March 15: Ace India shuttler and Olympic Silver medallist PV Sindhu kept country's hopes alive in women's singles event as she progressed to the quarterfinals of the All England Championships after a hard-fought win over Thailand's Nitchaon Jindapol, here on Thursday (March 15). While HS Prannoy overcame Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia in straight games to enter the last-eight stage in men's singles category.

Sindhu, the World No. 3 Indian recovered from a mid-way slump to overcome the Thai 21-13, 13-21, 21-18 in a match which lasted 67 minutes.

Meanwhile, Kidambi Srikanth lost to China's unseeded Huang Yuxiang 11-21, 21-15, 20-22 at the Arena Birmingham in a 52-minute battle to crash out of the tournament.

Saina, Praneeth make first-round exit

Sindhu, who held a 2-1 record against Jindapol, kept the shuttle in play, pushing the latter to the corners and returning the shuttles with immaculate ease early on.

In the first game, the duo split the initial six points before Sindhu jumped to a 7-3 lead after winning a long rally. After the breather, Sindhu moved to a 15-7 lead and kept piling on the misery on the Thai who kept hitting the net and wide to bleed points.

A body smash took Jindapol to double figures but she couldn't go far as Sindhu grabbed a massive game point advantage with a deceptive return at 20-13. Jindapol then hit long to hand the game to the Indian.

After Jindapol anticipated better and seemed more attacking in her approach to take the second game, Sindhu looked more focused in the decider as she pumped herself with each point to move to a 3-0 lead.

Though Jindapol exploited Sindhu's weak backhand, her unforced errors helped the Indian move to 8-5. Jindapol kept the pressure on and narrowed the lead to 7-8. Sindhu held a slender 11-9 advantage at the interval but Jindapol erased the deficit quickly.

Jindapol moved to 15-12 after Sindhu erred in her cross-court return. Sindhu produced an onrushing return at the back and then unleashed a couple of roaring smashes to make it 16-16.

Both missed the line next and it was 18-18. Sindhu pounced on a chance at the net to grab the lead and gained the match point when the Thai went to the net. Jindapol netted again and Sindhu sighed a relief.

Prannoy sails through easily

The 16th-ranked Prannoy prevailed over Sugiarto 21-10, 21-19 in the second round and wrapped up the match in just 38 minutes. The Indonesian was no match for Prannoy's guile and lost both the games.

Meanwhile, in men's doubles event, the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went down fighting against the second-seeded Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen. The India pair lost 16-21, 21-16, 21-23 in the contest which lasted more than an hour.