P.V. Sindhu advanced to the quarterfinals of the Madrid Spain Masters badminton tournament, with a comfortable 21-14, 21-12 win over Taiwan’s Huang Yu-Hsun, on Thursday.
Later, the eighth-seeded men’s doubles team of M.R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila and the mixed pairing of B. Sumeeth Reddy and N. Sikki Reddy also made the last eight.
With top seed Carolina Marin of Spain pulling out after her title-winning run at the All England Championships and Swiss Open in the last two weeks, Sindhu is now the favourite to claim the crown and end a long wait.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, it was curtains for K. Srikanth, Mithun Manjunath and Kiran George in the opening round of men’s singles.
Japan’s Koo Takahashi beat Srikanth 21-18, 21-15, Mithun Manjunath lost 11-21, 12-21 against Taiwan’s Wang Tzu Wei, and Kiran was beaten by Taiwan’s Chia Hao Lee 21-8, 21-10.
The results:
Women (pre-quarterfinals): P.V. Sindhu bt Huang Yu-Hsun (Tpe) 21-14, 21-12.
Men: Singles (round of 32): Koo Takahashi (Jpn) bt K. Srikanth 21-18, 21-15; Wang Tzu Wei (Tpe) bt Mithun Manjunath 21-11, 21-12; Chia Hao Lee (Tpe) bt Kiran George 21-8, 21-10.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): M.R. Arjun & Dhruv Kapila bt Mathew & Christopher Grimley (Sco) 21-17, 21-19.
Mixed doubles (Pre-quarterfinals): B. Sumeeth Reddy & N. Sikki Reddy bt Presley Smith & Allison Lee (USA) 22-20, 21-18.
