CWG 2018 Badminton: Indian contingent eases into quarter finals

Indian powerhouse continued their rich vein of form as they have cruised into quarter-finals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games ousting the respective opponents in Gold Coast on Thursday.

Rio Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu eliminated Australia’s Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen in the 34-minute encounter with 21-15, 21-9 in the pre-quarters round. Sindhu will now lock horns with Brittney Tam of Canada to book the berth in the semi-finals.  

In another women’s singles match, Ruthvika Gadde eliminated Jia Min Yeo of Singapore with 21-10, 21-23, 21-10 in the 55-minute contest, while, Saina Nehwal got through into last-16 round  as her opponent Jessica Li of Isle of Man retired in the second game with 21-4, 2-0.

In the men’s singles clash, the new world no. 1 Kidambi Srikanth made into the last-eight after outplaying Niluka Karunaratne of Sri Lanka in straight games with 21-10, 21-10. While, in another men’s singles match, HS Prannoy defeated Anthony Joe of Australia with 21-18, 21-11 in 35 minutes.

Earlier in the first match of the day, the mixed doubles pair of Satwik Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also booked their place in quarter-finals of the CWG 2018 after brushing aside the Malaysian duo of Kristen Tsai and Nyl Yakura 21-10, 21-7 in just 25 minutes.

In another clash, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N. Sikki Reddy defeated the Singapore team of Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Jia Ying Crystal WONG 21-19, 21-13 to make it to the next round of the mixed doubles event, while Sikki Reddy with Ashwini Ponnappa defeated ONG Ren-Ne/Wong Jia Ying Crystal of Singapore with 21-18, 21-13 in the women’s doubles match of last-16 to enter quarters.

India’s top men’s doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty took 24 minutes to beat Aatish Lubah and Christopher Jean Paul of Mauritius with 21-8, 21-12.