India shuttlers PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth moved to the singles quarter finals of the Madrid Spain Masters badminton tournament with straight game wins here on Thursday.
Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu prevailed over Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia 21-16, 21-14 in a little over half an hour to enter her first quarter final in 2023.
World no. 21 Srikanth pulled off a 21-15, 21-12 second-round win over compatriot B Sai Praneeth.
Sindhu, seeded second, has been struggling with her form this season since returning to action following a long injury lay-off. It is the first time in 2023 that the 27-year-old former world champion has crossed the second round.
Sindhu, who has dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since November 2016, will take on 25-year-old Danish Mia Blichfeldt in the last-eight stage of the Super 300 tournament.
Srikanth, seeded fifth, has a tough contest ahead of him as the former world No. 1 is pitted against top seed Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in the quarter finals. Nishimoto was handed a walkover by France’s Arnaud Merkle.
Kiran George and Priyanshu Rajawat crashed out of men’s singles. While George went down to Denmark’s Magnus Johannesen 17-21, 12-21 in 31 minutes, Rajat was outplayed 14-21, 15-21 by eighth seed Toma Junior Popov of France.
The Indian duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty withdrew from their pre-quarter finals match on Wednesday.
