PV Sindhu in quarterfinals, Srikanth crashes out of French Open
PV Sindhu produced another impressive show as she rallied to a three-game win over USA’s Beiwen Zhang to advance to the women’s singles quarterfinals but it was curtains for Kidambi Srikanth at the French Open Super 750 badminton tournament in Paris on Thursday.
Playing her first BWF tour event since returning from a knee injury, Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, battled her way from an opening-game reversal to outgun World No. 10 Zhang 13-21 21-10 21-14 to enter her first quarterfinal of the season.
The world No. 11 will face either Olympic champion and second seed Chen Yu Fei of China or Denmark’s Line Christophersen, making the contest an acid test for the Indian, who is eyeing a third medal at the Paris Games.
Srikanth, who showed his mastery over Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen on Wednesday, once again hit a roadblock, this time against Guang Zu to suffer yet another round-of-16 loss, something which will bother him as he held a flawless 5-0 record against the Chinese ahead of the match.
The former world No. 1 lost 21-19 12-21 20-22 to the world No. 17 Chinese after battling for 78 minutes.
In women’s singles, Sindhu started the proceedings with a cross-court winner but Zhang put up a defensive wall, engaging the Indian in long rallies dominated by a series of high tosses and clears.
Sindhu struggled with the conditions as, going for the backline, the Indian committed too many unforced errors to allow Zhang lead 11-7 and 14-9.
Zhang’s lifts repeatedly found the lines, while Sindhu missed time and again. Soon the American re-established a five-point lead at 16-11 before grabbing eight game points. The Chinese converted when Sindhu sprayed into net again.
Zhang had good control over her shots as she led 3-0 with a couple of lovely drops in the second game. Sindhu managed to level things at 4-4 before pouncing on a weak return near the net to go 6-4 up.
