All England C'ships: Sindhu through to quarters

London, March 12 (IANS) P.V. Sindhu on Thursday advanced to the quarterfinals of the All England Championships with a straight games win over Korea's Sung Ji Hyun.However, 18-year-old Lakshya Sen went down fighting to former world No.1 Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.Reigning world champion Sindhu beat world No. 12 Sing Ji Hyun 21-19, 21-15 in a match that lasted 49 minutes. She next faces either Japanese fourth seed Nozomi Okuhara or Denmark's Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt. Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth and Sai Praneeth were knocked out the tournament on Wednesday. Lakshya lost 17-21, 18-21 to second seed Axelsen in a match that lasted 45 minutes.Later, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy lost 13-21, 14-21 to Japanese Olympic champions Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi. Sindhu is thus the only Indian challenge left in the competition.
--IANS rkm/arm