BWF World Championships: Sindhu, Praneeth enter quarters; Prannoy, Srikanth, Saina eliminated

PV Sindhu dominated USA’s Beiwen Zhang in a straight-set third round win, while Sai Praneeth beat higher-ranked Anthony Sinisuka Ginting to reach the quarterfinals. However, HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal were all knocked out.

Published : Aug 23, 2019 01:04 IST , Basel (Switzerland)

Fifth-seed PV Sindhu of India beat USA's World no. 10 Beiwen Zhang 21-14, 21-6 in a pretty convincing manner.
Fifth-seed PV Sindhu of India beat USA's World no. 10 Beiwen Zhang 21-14, 21-6 in a pretty convincing manner.
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Fifth-seed PV Sindhu of India beat USA's World no. 10 Beiwen Zhang 21-14, 21-6 in a pretty convincing manner.

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 2019 BWF World Championships here on Thursday.

Sindhu won 21-14 21-6 in the women’s singles pre-quarterfinals match that lasted just 34 minutes. The Indian, seeded fifth, had lost to the ninth-seeded American opponent in the Indian Open final last year. Sindhu will next face second-seed Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals.

The Indian shuttler completely dominated the match, giving no chance to her American opponent. They were level at 5-5 in the first game but from there, Sindhu led all the way to pocket the opening game.

The second game was even better for Sindhu as she led all the way from 1-1, taking five straight points to 6-1 and then another six points on the trot to reach 14-5 before wrapping up the match.

BWF World Championships 2019 Day 4 | As it Happened

In men’s singles, B. Sai Praneeth dished out a superlative performance to stun world no. 8 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting and progress to the quarterfinals but Kidambi Srikanth and H. S. Prannoy suffered defeats to bow out of the showpiece event.

Seeded seventh, Srikanth lost 14-21 13-21 against Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand in the last-16 match that lasted 40 minutes while Prannoy’s campaign ended with a loss at the hands of world no. 1 Kento Momota of Japan.

Prannoy showed glimpses of brilliance, especially in the opening game, but couldn’t stop Momota from registering a 21-19 21-12 win, his fifth victory over the Indian in as many encounters.

World No 19. Praneeth, who had reached the finals at Swiss Open this year, took 42 minutes to dispatch sixth-seed Anthony Ginting of Indonesia 21-19 21-13 to set up a likely clash with another Indonesian Jonatan Christie, who is seeded fourth and is also the reigning Asian Games champion.

In the opening game, Praneeth quickly erased a 0-3 deficit to move to a 8-5 deficit. The Indian, who has had success against Anthony at the 2018 Asia Team championship and 2017 World Championship, kept his stranglehold to enter the break with a 11-8 advantage.

After the interval, Anthony managed to turn the tables at 14-12 and also threatened to undo the good work of the Indian but Praneeth got his bearings in time to pocket the opening game with three straight points from 18-19.

Sai-Praneeth-Ginting
Indian shuttler Sai Praneeth came back from behind to win a tight first game, while he cruised past Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia in the second game.
 

In the second game, Praneeth zoomed to 6-2 but Anthony made his way back to manage a 11-8 lead at the breather. After the break, the Indian reeled off six straight points to make it 14-12. He kept marching ahead as Anthony crumbled.

Earlier, Momota dominated the proceedings initially against Prannoy as he moved from a 8-4 lead to grab a 11-7 advantage at the break. Prannoy started putting pressure on his rival after the breather with an attacking game to claw back to 12-12 and kept snapping at Momota’s heels.

At one stage, after the end of the 57-shot rally, an exhausted Prannoy was left prostrated on the floor following a perfect net return from the World No 1. The point gave Momota a two-point cushion at 19-17. But the Indian stuck to his guns and a precise straight smash helped him to level the game at 19-19.

Momota, however, upped the pace to grab the game point with a return on the backline and then sealed it with a powerful smash.

After the change of sides, Momota once again found his way out of tricky situations to run up a lead of 11-5 at the break. Prannoy tried his best but Momota ensured he had the last laugh as he won soon after gaining nine match points.

Meanwhile, Saina Nehwal was knocked out of the 2019 BWF World Championships in the women's singles third round by Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt. The Indian shuttler lost a very tight game 21-15, 25-27, 12-21 after being a game ahead and squandering two match points in the process.

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