French Open Super Series: PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth Enter Quarters, Saina Nehwal Knocked Out

Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu stormed into the quarter finals but World Championship bronze medalist Saina Nehwal's run in the French Open ended with a straight-game loss at the USD 325,000 Super Series event, on Thursday. Sindhu beat Japan's Sayaka Takahashi 21-14, 21-13 to set up a revenge match against China's Chen Yufei. The World No. 10 Chinese had knocked Sindhu out in the opening round at Denmark Open. Sindhu had defeated Spain's Beatriz Corrales 21-19, 21-18 in the opening round. Kidambi Srikanth once again defeated Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent 21-19, 21-17 in 37 minutes to enter the quarter-finals. On the other hand, World Number 15 B Sai Praneeth lost 21-13, 21-17 to Japan's Kenta Nishimoto in 44 minutes.

However, former World Number. 1 Saina failed to get across another Japanese World Number 5 Akane Yamaguchi losing 9-21, 21-23 in a 39-minute clash.

This is her second loss to the pint-size dynamo in two weeks. Saina had lost to Yamaguchi in the quarterfinals at Odense.

Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy lost 16-21 14-21 to top seeded Japanese Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi in women's doubles.

Young Indian doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, ranked 32nd later stunned World No 6 Danish combo of Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding to reach their second quarterfinal of the season.

Sindhu dominated the opening game as her opponent had a slender lead at 9-8 only once in the opening game while in the second game the Japanese never could topple the Indian though she was competitive initially for sometime.

In another women's singles encounter, Yamaguchi, who had finished as runners-up at Odense last week, tore through the opening game, leading from start to finish to earn the bragging rights.

Saina regained her composure in the second, producing a gallant fight as she kept nipping at her opponent's heels, despite being 7-11 down at the break.

The Indian caught up with the Japanese at 19-19 and had infact grabbed a game point at 20-19 but Yamaguchi managed to stay ahead and closed out the match.

Yesterday, title-contender Kidambi Srikanth, who had clinched his third title of the season at Denmark Open Super Series premier last week, emerged victories after his opponent Germany's Fabian Roth retired at 0-3 in the opening game.

The World No 8 Indian will face Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent, whom he had beaten in straight games last week en route to his title.

Men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty too made a positive start as he disposed off France's Bastian Kersaudy and Julien Maio 21-12 21-14 in 30 minutes. They will face Denmark's sixth seed Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding next.