Sindhu, Srikanth enter semi-finals of Swiss Open badminton

Basel, March 5 (IANS) Olympic silver medallist P.V. Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth on Friday stormed into the women's and men's singles semi-finals, respectively, of the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton here.Srikanth beat Thailand's Kantaphon Wangcharoen 21-19, 21-15 in 44 minutes in a quarterfinal match. The Indian will now play top seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the semi-finals. Reigning world champion Sindhu beat fifth seed Thai Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-16 23-21 in a quarterfinal match in 59 minutes. She will now clash with fourth seed Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark in the semi-finals.However, the other Indians in the fray lost and fell by the wayside.Last edition's finalist B. Sai Praneeth went down to Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia 14-21 17-21 in 45 minutes in a men's singles quarter-final match.In another men's singles quarter-final match, eighth seeded Thai Kunlavut Vitidsarn defeated India's Ajay Jayaram 21-9, 21-6.And, fifth seeded Malaysian pair Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing beat Indians Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa 21-17, 16-21, 21-8 in a quarterfinal encounter of the mixed doubles competition.Later on Friday, world No.10 and second seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will play Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi of Malaysia.
--IANS qma/