Saina, Sindhu storm into Denmark quarterfinals
ODENSE: On a fruitful day for the Indian shuttlers, Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu stormed into the women’s singles quarterfinals while two men’s players also secured places in the last-eight stage of the Denmark Open Super Series Badminton, on Thursday.
Saina made short work of Minatsu Mitani 21-12, 21-10 in her second round contest, which lasted just 38 minutes.
Sindhu beat Ksenia Polikarpova of Russia 21-17, 21-19. The duo could clash for the title if they win two more matches. In the men’s singles, Srikanth defeated Chinese Taipei’s Jen Hao Hsu 21-12, 21-15 in 45 minutes while Kashyap fought hard before prevailing over Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka of Indonesia 21-17, 17-21, 22-20. RAMKUMAR SHOCKS YUKI; SOMDEV OUSTED INDORE: Ramkumar Ramanathan proved his ascendancy yet again as he knocked out Yuki Bhambri from the ATP Indore Open even as India’s top player Somdev Devvarman also made an early exit on Thursday.
Ramkumar, who had also shocked Somdev at the Chennai open early this year, overcame the challenge of sixth seed Yuki 7-6 (4), 6-3 to move to the quarterfinals of the USD 50,000 hard court tournament.
Third seed Somdev, ranked 143rd lost a hard-fought quarterfinal 7-6(4), 4-6, 4-6 to Chinese Taipei’s Liang-chi Hunag, who is ranked as low as 316, after fighting it out for close to three hours in his second round contest.
RANDHAWA LEADS IN HONG KONG
HONG KONG: Jyoti Randhawa turned the clock back as he holed 23 putts en-route to a six-underpar 64 to grab the first round lead at the US 1.3 million Dollars Hong Kong Open, on Thursday.
The 2002 Asian Tour number one said he ‘putted his heart out’ in a round of seven birdies and one bogey to take a one-shot lead over Angelo Que of the Philippines at the Hong Kong Golf Club.