Sindhu, Srikanth enter quarterfinals of Madrid Spain Masters

Madrid: Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth moved to the singles quarterfinals of the Madrid Spain Masters badminton tournament with straight game wins here on Thursday.

Two-time Olympic medallist, Sindhu dispatched Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonasia 21-16 21-14 in a little over half an hour to enter her first quarterfinal in 2023.

World no. 21 Srikanth, on the other hand, pulled off a 21-15 21-12 second round win over compatriot B Sai Praneeth.

Second seed Sindhu has been struggling for form this season since returning to action following a long injury lay off. It is the first time in 2023 that the 27-year-old former world champion has crossed the second round.

Sindhu, who has dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since November 2016, will take on 25-year-old Danish Mia Blichfeldt in the last eight stage of the Super 300 tournament.

While World no. 21 Srikanth, seeded fifth, has a tough contest ahead of him as the former world No. 1 is pitted against top seed Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in the quarterfinals.

Nishimoto was handed a walkover by France’s Arnaud Merkle in their second round contest.

Kiran George and Priyanshu Rajawat crashed out of the men’s singles event after suffering second round defeats.

While George went down to Denmark’s Magnus Johannesen 17-21 12-21 in 31 minutes, Rajat was outplayed 14-21 15-21 by eight seed Toma Junior Popov of France.

Later in the day, Aakarshi Kashyap, Ashmita Chaliha Malvika Bansod and Sameer Verma will play their second round matches.

The men’s and women’s doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila and Sikki Reddy and Arathi Sara Sunil will also be in action.