Srikanth, Praneeth move into semis, Sindhu loses at Singapore Open (Lead)

Singapore April 14 (IANS) Indian men s singles shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and B. Sai Praneeth advanced to the semi-finals while P.V. Sindhu and the mixed doubles pair of B. Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa lost in the quarter-finals of the $350 000 Singapore Open Superseries here on Friday.

Praneeth fought hard to get the better of Thai eighth seed Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk 15-21 21-14 21-19 in an hour and 11 minutes at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The Indian will meet South Korean Lee Dong Keun who got past Indonesian Jonatan Christie 21-18 21-16.

Srikanth smashed past Chinese fifth seed Shi Yuqi 21-14 21-16 in 36 minutes to set-up a last four clash against Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting who got the better of Hong Kong s Wong Wing Ki Vincent 21-19 21-14.

Olympic 2016 runner-up Sindhu suffered a taming 11-21 15-21 defeat at the hands of her Rio conqueror Carolina Marin of Spain.

With this win two-time reigning world champion Marin has taken a 6-5 lead over the Indian in career meetings.

In the semi-final the fourth-seeded Spanish star will meet South Korean second seed Sung ji Hyun who got past Chinese sixth seed Sun Yu 21-13 21-16. The other semi-final will be fought between Chinese Taipei s top seed Tai Tzu Ying and United States Beiwen Zhang.

Sumeeth-Ashwini couldn t mount a challenge against the Chinese third seeded pair of Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong who took only 27 minutes to win 21-11 21-8.

--IANS
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