Fourth seeded PV Sindhu progressed to the quarterfinal of the Badminton Asia Championship after coming up with a 21-16, 21-16 win over Singapore’s Yue Yann Jaslyn Hooi.
It took the World No 7 42 minutes to beat the player ranked 100 in the world, just a day after Sindhu was made to work hard in a 77 minute 18-21, 27-25, 21-9 win over Chinese Taipei’s Yu Po Pai.
Sindhu’s next opponent though is China’s He Bing Jiao, the fifth seed who the Indian had beaten for the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics last year.
The 26-year-old from Hyderabad has beaten her Chinese opponent the last two times they’ve met, but still has a 7-9 head-to-head record.
The men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are also through to the quarterfinals after a 21-17, 21-15 win over the Japanese team of Akira Koga and Taichi Saito.
They will play fifth seeds Aaron Chia and Wooi Yik Soh in the quarterfinals. The Malaysians beat Singapore’s Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Jun Liang Andy Kwek 21-16, 21-19.
Meanwhile, former World No 1 Saina Nehwal lost in three games to China’s Zhi Yi Wang, with a 12-21, 21-7, 21-13 scoreline.
In mixed doubles, India’s Tanisha Crasto and Ishaan Bhatnagar lost 18-21, 18-21 to Malaysian seventh seeds Pei Jing Lai and Kian Meng Tan in the second round.
In Thursday’s last match featuring an Indian, seventh seed Srikanth Kidambi lost a hard-fought encounter with Weng Hong Yang. The Chinese shutter advanced to the men’s singles quarter-finals with a 21-16, 17-21, 21-17 victory in an hour and 17 minutes,
Weng Hong continued his remarkable run with a gritty performance. The 22-year-old, who was ranked No 156 till a few weeks ago, had recently won the Korea open.
