By Our Special Correspondent
There were mixed results in store for Indian fans today as PV Sindhu stormed into the quarterfinals of the Badminton Asia Championships on Thursday, 28 April. The morning was in India's favour as Sindhu along with India's men's doubles pairing Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won their respective games, but Indian hearts were once again broken by Saina Nehwal's loss against world number 16.
Sindhu, seeded fourth, who had claimed a bronze in the 2014 Gimcheon edition, defeated Jaslyn Hooi, ranked 100th, 21-16 21-16 in 42 minutes to set up a clash against third seed Chinese He Bing Jiao, whom she had beaten for a bronze at the Tokyo Olympics.
Sindhu after trailing 9-11 in the first game took control and won her match against Singapore's Yue Yann Jaslyn Hooi by 21-16, 21-16. While Sindhu continued with her exploits, Indian men's doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankreddy and Chirag Shetty defeated Japan's Akira Koga and Taichi Saito with a score line of 21-17, 21-15.
However, Saina's dream of claiming her fourth medal in the prestigious tournament ended after she ran out of steam to eventually lose 21-12 7-21 13-21 to 22-year-old Chinese Wang Zhi Yi, ranked 16th in the world.
Saina is on a comeback trail after recovering from some nagging injuries and had skipped the selection trials for the upcoming major events such as Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and Uber Cup. Srikanth, seeded seventh, too couldn't step up his game when it mattered, going down narrowly to China's Weng Hong Yang 16-21 21-17 17-21 in a men's singles second round match that lasted an hour and 17 minutes. Earlier, despite the huge difference in their rankings, it was a tight battle for supremacy between Sindhu and Jaslyn Hooi. At one stage, the Indian was two-point behind at 7-9 against her opponent, who managed to take a slender 11-10 lead at the interval but Sindhu stepped up and leveled 16-16 before pocketing the opening game.
The Indian managed to move to a 12-8 advantage in the second game after an initial fight following a change of sides. The Singaporean erased the deficit, coming as close as 15-16, before Sindhu once again stepped on the gas to pocket the match.
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