India Open 2018: Marin survives the scare, Srikanth bowed out

With the aim of achieving as many titles as possible in this season, Srikanth Kidambi still thriving to catch the momentum. The World No. 3 created major upset after losing to the Malaysian Iskandar Zulkarnian, the 85th ranked, in the qualifier round at the India Open in the straight game on Thursday.

In the 43-minute encounter, Srikanth displayed many errors to favour his opponent to win with 21-19, 21-17 at the Siri Fort Complex Indoor Courts.

Expressing contentment, Zulkarnian said, “My goal was to upset higher-ranked players in the tournament and I did so. Hopefully, I can continue the winning run.” The Malaysian will now face the 30th ranked Indian Sameer Verma, who got better off former World No. 3 Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia with 21-18, 19-21, 21-17 in the battle of 70 minutes.

The second seeded Srikanth, who just entered the season said, “It was not that I played badly. I was even leading 16-14 in the second game but it was just that I could not score those crucial points. Iskandar picked up shuttles from unimaginable positions which made it tough for me.”

While, Carolina Marin survived the scare after losing in the first game against the Chinese teenager Gao Fangjie with 15-21, 21-15, 21-11. The spaniard will face the sixth seeded Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong in the quarter finals.

In another women’s singles matches Sindhu and Saina, somehow pulled off to advance into next round.

After the win against the Bulgarian Linda Zetchiri with 21-10, 21-14, Sindhu felt it was not easy  to get past her opponent. She said, “My performance was not up to the mark today. I had not played her before so I didn't quite know how she plays. It was a tricky match but I am happy that I pulled it off.”

“Now, I have to be well-prepared against my Spanish opponent (the eighth seeded Beatriz Corrales) in the quarterfinals,” Sindhu added.

While, Saina took just 28 minutes to knock down Denmark’s Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt with 21-12, 21-11 to meet the fifth seeded Beiwan Zhang of USA in the quarters.

Sai Praneeth defeated Hu Yun of Hong Kong 21-10, 21-15 to set up a quarterfinal meeting with third seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.

Qualifier Shreyansh Jaiswal put some gruelling battle against Parupalli Kashyap before bowing out with 21-19, 19-21, 12-21. Kashyap will face Qiao Bin in the quarterfinals after the Chinese defeated qualifier Kartikey Gulshan Kumar 21-7, 21-3.

In the mixed doubles, the duo pair of the young Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and the experienced Ashwini Ponnappa stunned third seeds Tan Kian Menga and Lai Pei Jing of Malaysia 21-16, 15-21, 23-21 in a contest that lasted more than an hour, another pair N Sikki Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra, the eighth seeded, defeated Yogendra Krishnan of Malaysia and Prajaktha Sawanth of India with 21-10, 21-19 in the 32-minute encounter.

In the women’s doubles pair, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy thrashed Meghana Morchana Bora and Sanghamitra Saika with 21-9, 21-2 in just 16 minutes to face DU Yue and Li Yinhui of China in the quarter finals.

It was a match to remember as the Indian duo, Ashwini and Satwik, entered quarter finals since their partnership in 10 months. “It was a crazy finish. We really wanted to win this as we were leading (in the match). I'm really happy it went our way,” said Ashwini.