Srikanth ousted; Ashwini-Satwik, Saina, Sindhu in quarters of India Open

New Delhi Feb 1 (IANS) Men s singles top seed Kidambi Srikanth of India tumbled out of the second round while the Indian mixed doubles pair of young Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa registered a stunning victory to join P.V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal in the quarter-finals of the India Open BWF World Tour 500 here on Thursday.

Srikanth lost 19-21 17-21 to Malaysian qualifier Iskandar Zulkarnain who will face Sameer Verma on Friday. Sameer moved past Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto 21-18 19-21 21-17.

The Indian pair of young Satwik and Ashwini stunned third seeds Tan Kian Menga and Lai Pei Jing of Malaysia 21-16 15-21 23-21 in a humdinger that lasted more than an hour.

Terming it as an "important victory" for their partnership Ashwini said that "it was a crazy finish. We really wanted to win this as we were leading (in the match). I m really happy it went our way".

They will next take on Danish fifth seeds Mathias Christiansen and Christinna Pedersen who downed the Indians Rohan Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg 21-10 21-11.

Among other upsets Danish second seeds Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen lost to unseeded Chinese pair of Han Chengkai and Zhou Haodong who won 12-21 23-21 21-14.

In the women s singles Sindhu eased past Bulgarian Linda Zetchiri 21-10 21-14 in 33 minutes while Saina had no problem in dismissing Denamrk s Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt with a 21-12 21-11 victory in 22 minutes.

Olympic champion Carolina Marin overcame a scare from Chinese teenager Gao Fangjie 15-21 21-15 21-11 to set-up a clash against Hong Kong sixth seed Cheung Ngan Yi who handed a 21-4 21-7 drubbing to Thailand s Thamolwan Poopradubsil.

Defending champion Sindhu will next face Spanish eight seed Beatriz Corrales who defeated Indian Ruthvika Shivani Gadde 21-19 21-16.

Fourth seeded Saina will take on US fifth seed Beiwen Zhang who moved past Indian Mughda Agrey 21-12 21-16.

In the men s singles qualifier Shreyansh Jaiswal too put in a spirited display to stretch Parupalli Kashyap before bowing out 19-21 21-19 12-21. Kashyap will face Qiao Bin in the quarterfinals with the Chinese having defeated qualifier Kartikey Gulshan Kumar 21-7 21-3.

Eighth seed B. Sai Praneeth moved past Hu Yun 21-10 21-15 to set-up a contest against Chinese Taipei s Chou Tien chen.

In the men s doubles the pair of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy took only 24 minutes to take out compatriots Tushar Sharma and Chandrabhusan Tripathi with a 21-11 21-15 victory.

In the women s doubles seventh seeds Jakkampudi Meghana and Poorvisha S. Ram got the better of compatriots Rutaparna Panda Mithula U.K. 21-12 21-18 to advance to the last eight.

Ashwini also advanced to the quarter-finals with N. Sikki Reddy. The sixth seeded pair defeated Megha Morchana Bora and Sanghamitra Saikia 21-9 21-2.

Sikki also entered the mixed doubles last eight stage. She partnered Pranaav Jerry Chopra to beat Malaysian-Indian combine of Yogendran Khrishnan and Prajakta Sawant 21-10 21-19.

--IANS
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