PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth were the last Indians left standing at the Madrid Spain Masters, reaching the quarterfinals of the Super 300 with straight games win on Thursday.
Sindhu reached her first BWF Tour quarterfinals of the year after coming back from a five-month injury layoff. She beat Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia 21-16, 21-14, the same player who had beaten her in the second round last week at the Swiss Masters.
Second seed Sindhu had been struggling for form this season and has dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since November 2016. She will next take on 25-year-old Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark, against whom she has a head-to-head of 5-1, for a place in the semos
Showtima on court 1 with Pursala V Shindu ���� @BAI_Media @BadmintonESP @bwfmedia @MADRID #Madridspainmasters2023 pic.twitter.com/3d9Sw3kgoN
- MADRID SPAIN MASTERS (@madridmasters) March 30, 2023
World no. 21 Srikanth, meanwhile, beat fellow Indian B Sai Praneeth 21-15, 21-12 in the second round. The fifth seed has a tough contest ahead of him 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.
Among the other Indians, Kiran George, Priyanshu Rajawat and Sameer Verma exited from the men's singles event after suffering second round defeats. Verma lose to second seed Kanta Tsuneyama 15-21, 14-21, George went down to Denmark's Magnus Johannesen 17-21, 12-21 in 31 minutes and Rajat lost 14-21, 15-21 to eight seed Toma Junior Popov of France.
In women's singles, Aakarshi Kashyap, Ashmita Chaliha, Malvika Bansod went down in the second round. Kashyap lost to Natsuki Nidaira 21-13, 21-8, Chaliha went down to Yeo Jia Min 21-15, 21-15 and Bansod gave a walkover against Carolina Marin.
The men's and women's doubles pair of MR Arjun - Dhruv Kapila and N Sikki Reddy - Arathi Sara Sunil also went down in the second round.
Earlier in the first round, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty withdrew from the tournament after an injury to the former while Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost their first round contest against Japan's Rena Miyaura and Ayako Sakuramoto.
With PTI Inputs