India's Sindhu storms into pre-quarters

Indians continued their good run at the World Badminton Championship with PV Sindhu, B Sai Praneeth and Ajay Jayaram registering straight game victories in singles events.

Olympic silver medallist Sindhu, who received a bye in the first round, advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the women's singles competition after defeating South Korea's Kim Hyo Min in the second round.

Sindhu, a two-time world championship bronze medallist, notched up a 21-16 21-14 win over Kim in a 49-minute match, to extend her head-to-head record against the Korean to 4-1 in five meetings.

The 22-year-old will face either Russian Evgeniya Kosetskaya or Hong Kong's 13th seed Cheung Ngan Yi in the next round.

Sindhu came up with a dominating game to take a 8-0 lead in the first game. Kim Hyo Min tried to break Sindhu's rhythm, winning four straight points but the Indian grabbed a comfortable 11-5 lead.

The Korean reduced the gap to 8-12 after the break but a determined Sindhu continued to move ahead and reached 16-10 at one stage. She eventually took a 20-14 lead. Kim saved two game points before the Indian sealed the opening game.

In the second game, Sindhu once again opened up a 8-3 lead. The Korean managed to reduce the margin to 8-10 but the Indian didn't allow Kim to put up a challenge as she kept on surging ahead, reaching 19-12.

Sindhu then sealed the issue, grabbing the final two points.

"I could see she (Kim) was tired by the end. She was playing long rallies and I was okay with it. I last played her a year ago, so I knew her game," Sindhu said.

On whether she was happy with long rallies, Sindhu smiled and said, "That was not my idea. I still wanted to finish fast."

Meanwhile, Singapore Open champion Praneeth made a positive start to his campaign, registering a straight-game win over Hong Kong's Wei Nan to reach the second round of men's singles event.

Praneeth, seeded 15th, fought back from 5-9 and 14-16 deficits in the opening game and 10-13 and 15-17 in the second to see off Wei Nan 21-18 21-17 in a 48-minute match.

The 25-year-old player from Hyderabad will now take on Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting - the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic and World Junior Championships boys' singles bronze medallist.

Experienced shuttler Ajay Jayaram also produced a dominating performance to storm into the second round with a 21-14 21-12 win over Austria's Luka Wraber. He will take on the Netherland's Mark Caljouw next.

Source: Khaleej Times