Sindhu, Lakshya enter quarters

Bangkok, May 15:

Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen advanced to the quarterfinals of the USD 500,000 Thailand Open Super 500 tournament with straight-game wins in their respective matches here on Thursday.

Two-time Olympic medallist and sixth seed Sindhu needed just 28 minutes to outclass Denmark’s Amalie Schulz 21-13, 21-15 in the women’s singles second round.

Seventh seed Lakshya, the 2021 World Championships bronze medallist, defeated China’s Zhu Xuan Chen 21-12, 21-13 in a men’s singles clash that lasted 39 minutes.

Sindhu will next face top seed and world No. 3 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, while Lakshya will take on Thailand’s second seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn.

India’s top-seeded men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also marched into the last-eight stage with a 21-12, 21-19 win over Malaysia’s Bryan Jeremy Goonting and Muhammad Haikal in 44 minutes.

The world No. 4 Indian duo will next meet the sixth-seeded Japanese combination of Takumi Nomura and Yuichi Shimogami.

However, former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth crashed out after going down 16-21, 21-11, 18-21 to Chinese Taipei’s world No. 47 Su Li Yang in a hard-fought contest lasting one hour and 10 minutes.

It was also the end of the road for young Devika Sihag, who had clinched her maiden Super 300 title at the Thailand Masters earlier this year. She lost 21-23, 11-21 to Thailand’s Pitchamon Opatniputh.