Top seed Kidambi Srikanth entered the quarter-finals but there was heartbreak in store for P.V.
Top seed Kidambi Srikanth entered the quarter-finals but there was heartbreak in store for P.V. Sindhu as she suffered a shocking loss to Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand in the second round of the $120,000 Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in Lucknow on Thursday.
Srikanth hammered Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin 21-9, 21-12 in a 32-minute pre-quarter-final match, five days after going down to the Malaysian in the semi-finals of Malaysia Masters in Penang.
The world no. 9 Indian will face another Malay-sian in Goh Soon Huat on Friday.
Last Sunday, Sindhu was standing on the podium with her Malaysia Masters gold medal but on the day, the third seeded Indian bowed out with a 21-18, 24-26, 17-21 loss to world no. 27 Nitchaon in an edge-of-the-seat thriller that lasted an hour and 28 minutes.
Defending champion Parupalli Kashyap also reached the quarter-finals with a 21-19, 21-10 win over China’s Zhu Siyuan. The Commonwealth Games champion will next take on China’s Huang Yuxiang.
World Championship bronze medallists Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa brushed aside compatriots Ningshi Block Hazarika and Harika Veludurthi 21-9, 21-10 and will next take on the Thai pair of Puttita Supajirakul and Sapsiree Taeratt-anachai.
Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar marched past fifth-seeded Indonesian combo of Angga Pratama and Ricky Karanda Suwardi 21-13, 21-14 in a men’s doubles match.
