Sindhu enters India Open last eight, Srikanth ousted
NEW DELHI: Malaysian qualifier Iskandar Zulkarnain caused the biggest upset of the India Open 2018 when he took down home favourite and World No. 3 Kidambi Srikanth in straight games on Thursday. The 26-year-old Zulkarnain, ranked 85th in the world, made the most of an error-prone display by his much higher ranked rival to win 21-19, 21-17 in 43 minutes.
Zulqarnain will now run into Sameer Verma, ranked 30th in the world, who upstaged former World No. 3 Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia 21-18, 19-21, 21-17.
Olympic champion Carolina Marin faced a tough examination from Chinese teenager Gao Fangjie before entering the quarterfinal round while Indian heavyweights PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and eighth seed Sai Praneeth eased into the last eight stage without much fuss. Marin beat 19-year-old China Open runner-up 15-21, 21-15, 21-11.
Sindhu felt she has work to do in the upcoming rounds after upstaging Bulgarian Linda Zetchiri 21-10, 21-14. “My performance was not up to the mark today. I had not played her before so I didn’t quite know how she plays. It was a tricky match but I am happy that I pulled it off,” said the defending champion who will be up against eighth seed Beatriz Corrales in the next round. The Spaniard downed Shivani Ruthvika Gadde (Ind) 21-19, 21-16. “Now, I have to be well-prepared against my Spanish opponent in the quarterfinals,” Sindhu added.
Saina downed Denmark’s Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt 21-12, 21-11 in 28 minutes and will meet fifth seed Beiwan Zhang of USA in the quarters.
Sai Praneeth defeated Hu Yun of Hong Kong 21-10, 21-15 to set up a quartifinal meeting with third seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.
Qualifier Shreyansh Jaiswal put in a spirited display to stretch Parupalli Kashyap before bowing out 21-19, 19-21, 21-12. Kashyap will face Qiao Bin in the quarterfinals with the Chinese defeated qualifier Kartikey Gulshan Kumar 21-7, 21-3.