Saina in semifinals; Srikanth, Sindhu ousted from Indonesian Masters

Jakarta, January 25: India had a mixed day at the Indonesian Masters as Saina Nehwal eased into the semifinals while Kidambi Srikanth was ousted in the quarterfinals here on Friday (January 25).

Saina had an easy run against Thaiand's Pornpawee Chochuwong 21-7, 21-18 while Srikanth produced patchy badminton to go down against Indonesia's Jonathan Christie - 18-21, 19-21. Meanwhile, PV Sindhu bowed out of the tournament after losing to Spain's World No 3 Carolina Marin 12-21, 11-21.

Saina breezed through the first set and gave little chance to Chochuwong. But the Thai girl came up with a better effort in the second game but Saina played the crucial points better to emerge the winner and took her spot in the semifinals.

Srikanth fought neck-to-neck with the Christie, the reigning Asian Games gold medallist, right from the word go. Lead fluctuated between the players but Srikanth could not control the decisive points better and committed a few unforced errors to hand the Indonesian the first game.

The pattern continued in the second game as well. Srikanth matched Christie shots for shots and even staged a good comeback when he was down 16-19 to make it 19-19. However, the match ended in a rather controversial manner. Srikanth wanted to challenge the line call on the match point but the referee rejected the Indian's appeal saying the time limit to make an appeal was lapsed. Srikanth continued to argue with referee even after the match but was to no avail.