Asia Badminton Championships: PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Sameer Verma Win In Straight Sets; Enter Quarterfinals
PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Sameer Verma won their Round of 16 matches in straight sets.
Highlights
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PV Sindhu defeated Indonesia's Choirunnisa 21-15, 21-19
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Saina Nehwal outplayed Korea's Kim Ga Eun 21-13, 21-13
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Sameer Verma won against Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong 21-12, 21-19
Indian shuttler PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Sameer Verma advanced to the quarterfinal of Asia Badminton Championships 2019 being held in Wuhan, China on Thursday after winning their Round 16 matches in their respective categories. Sindhu, the Rio Olympic silver-medallist, defeated Indonesia's Choirunnisa 21-15, 21-19 to advance to the next round. Saina Nehwal defeated Korea's Kim Ga Eun 21-13, 21-13. In men's singles, Sameer Verma outplayed World No 16 Hong Kong's Ka Long Angus in two straight games, winning 21-12, 21-19 in just 43 minutes.
Sindhu will be up against World No 17 China's Cai Yanyan in the quarters, while Saina, who is currently ranked ninth in the world, will take on World No 4 Japan's Akane Yamaguchi in the next round.
Verma had an easy outing in the first game but the Hong Kong player asked several questions in the second which swung like seesaw.
With scoreboard reading 11-all, Verma changed his gears and gathered five points back to back, Angus too didn't panic and nullified Verma's lead by scoring five straight points.
At 19-all, Verma scored three consecutive points and blew all the chances of the match going to the third set.
In mixed doubles category, the Indian pair of Utkarsh Arora and Karishma Wadkar were knocked out of the tournament after losing 10-21, 15-21 to Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja of Indonesia in the second round.