Sindhu in quarters, Srikanth crashes out of Indonesia Open

Jakarta, July 18 (IANS): Ace Indian shuttler P.V. Sindhu advanced to the quarterfinal of the ongoing $1,250,000 Indonesia Open BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament while Kidambi Srikanth crashed out here on Thursday.
Fifth seed Sindhu, who is eyeing her first title of the season, defeated Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt 21-14, 17-21, 21-11 in a match that lasted for 62 minutes.
The Hyderabadi shuttler was at her absolute best, winning the first game 21-14 without any hiccups in just 18 minutes. However, the Dane made a strong comeback in the second game, making Sindhu toil hard for her points during the course of the 23-minute game. Blichfeldt ultimately won the game 21-17, thus pushing the match into the third game.

In the final game, Sindhu, however, made sure she didn’t give her opponent any chance and won 21-11 to progress to the third round of the tournament.

There was disappointment in the men’s section as ace shuttler Kidambi Srikanth went down against Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong in straight games. Despite showing some great fighting spirit, Srikanth suffered a 17-21, 19-21 loss in 39 minutes.

In men’s doubles, the Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty bowed out of the competition after losing in straight games to Indonesia’s Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.

The Indian pair, which saw off Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin 21-19, 18-21, 21-19 in their opening match, lost 15-21, 14-21 to the Indonesian top seeds in the second round contest which lasted less than 30 minutes.