Badminton World Championships: PV Sindhu, Sai Praneeth Enter Quarters; Kidambi Srikanth, Saina Nehwal Lose

Kidambi Srikanth was knocked out of the Badminton World Championships after losing to Kantaphon Wangcharoen in straight games on Thursday. Srikanth lost the first game 14-21 and went down 13-21 in the second game. Earlier in the day, HS Prannoy was also knocked out as he lost to Kento Momota 19-21 and 13-21. In the other match, B Sai Praneeth stunned world no 8 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting to progress to the quarter-finals on Thursday. In women's singles, two-time silver medallist P V Sindhu produced yet another commanding performance as she demolished Beiwen Zhang of United States in straight games to advance to the quarterfinals of the BWF World Championships. In the other match, Saina Nehwal crashed out of the tournament after losing to Mia Blichfeldt 21-15, 25-27 and 21-12 in a hard-fought contest.

Sindhu won 21-14 21-6 in the women's singles pre-quarterfinals match that lasted just 34 minutes. The fifth seeded Indian had lost to the ninth seeded American opponent in the Indian Open final last year.   

Sindhu now face second seed Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals.

Praneeth swept aside Ginting of Indonesia 21-19, 21-13 to cap off an amazing performance. Prannoy failed against World No 1 Kento Momota and lost 19-21, 12-21.

Praneeth was on top of his game from the start as he erased a 0-3 deficit to move to a 8-5 deficit. He entered the break with a 11-8 advantage.

After the interval, Ginting pulled things back at 14-12 and threatened to stop Praneeth before the Indian got his act together to win the opening game with three straight points from 18-19.

In the second game, Praneeth moved to 6-2 but Anthony made his way to manage a 11-8 lead at the breather. After the break, Praneeth kept marching ahead as Ginting crumbled.

(With PTI and IANS inputs)