PV On Friday, Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth each won their respective quarter-final sets at the Korea Open Super 500 tournament in Suncheon. After the 3rd-seeded men’s doubles combination of Sattwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty went out in the quarter-final earlier in the day, Sindhu and Srikanth are the only two Indian athletes left in the competition.
Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medalist, advanced to the women’s singles semi-finals by defeating Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-10 21-16. Sindhu, who was eliminated in the second round of the All-England Open Badminton Championships, had an easy start to the event, defeating Lauren Lam and Aya Ohori in the first two rounds. In the quarterfinals, the two-time Olympic medalist easily defeated Thai Busanan Ongbamrungphan.
Sindhu will have a tough test in the last four round on Saturday when she faces second-seeded Korean standout An Se-Young. Sindhu had struggled against the new Korean sensation, losing to her twice in the previous year.
In a men’s singles quarterfinal match that lasted just over an hour, World Championships silver winner Srikanth used his power and precision to defeat local hope Son Wan Ho 21-12 18-21 21-12. Srikanth has a 4-7 record versus the Korean, including three losses to him.
On Friday, though, the Indian played better badminton than his opponent, who is returning to international badminton after a two-year absence.
The fifth-seeded Indian will meet Indonesian third-seeded Jonatan Christie, who won the Swiss Open last month. Srikanth and Christie enter the match with identical head-to-head records. Both players have won four games in a row against one another. Srikanth last faced Christie in the semifinals of the Swiss Open.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were eliminated in the quarterfinals after losing 20-22 21-18 20-22 to Kang Min-Hyuk and Seo Seungjae of Korea.
