Indian badminton icon PV Sindhu storms into Singapore Open quarterfinals

NEW DELHI: Olympic medalist duo PV Sindhu on Thursday comfortably moved into the women’s singles quarter-finals at the Singapore Open Super 750 badminton tournament after a dominant straight-set win. Sindhu defeated Japan’s Riko Gunji 21-9, 21-12 in just 37 minutes, giving her opponent almost no chance to settle in the match. The Indian star looked sharp from the start and controlled the tempo throughout the match with aggressive play and accurate shot placement. The win keeps Sindhu’s campaign alive in the prestigious US$1,000,000 tournament, but the competition will only get tougher from here. In the quarterfinals, she will face top seed An Se Young from South Korea, who is currently considered one of the strongest players on the circuit. The upcoming clash is expected to be a big test for the Indian shuttler as they aim to make a deep run in the tournament.India’s top men’s doubles pair of Satwiksiraj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty had to fight hard to reach the quarterfinals. The fourth-seeded duo defeated Chinese Taipei’s Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan 21-15, 11-21, 21-18 in an intense hour-long battle. They will now face Malaysians Khai Xing Kang and Aaron Tai.In the mixed doubles, Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto also reached the last eight after fighting back from a poor start to beat Japan’s Yuta Watanabe and Maya Taguchi in three games.