World Championships silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth staved off a spirited challenge from France’s Christo Popov to progress to the men’s singles quarter finals of the Swiss Open Super 300 tournament here on Thursday.

World No. 12 Srikanth, who had missed the India leg of the BWF tour in January after testing positive for Covid-19, eked out a fighting 13-21, 25-23, 21-11 win over Popov, ranked 60th, in a second-round match that lasted an hour and 13 minutes. The seventh seeded Indian will face second seeded Dane Anders Antonsen next.

Former Commonwealth Games gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap too entered the quarter finals after top seed and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen gave a walkover.

Third seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost 19-21, 20-22 to Indonesia’s Pramudya Kusumawardana and Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan.

On Wednesday night, Sindhu had entered the second round with a 21-14, 21-12 win over Denmark’s Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt.