Thailand Open: Sindhu, Sameer Verma enter quarterfinals, Prannoy loses
World No. 31, who had shocked Malaysia's eighth seed Lee Zii Jia in the opening round, needed just 39 minutes to see off Rasmus Gemke 21-12, 21-9.
World No. 31, who had shocked Malaysia's eighth seed Lee Zii Jia in the opening round, needed just 39 minutes to see off Rasmus Gemke 21-12, 21-9.
World No. 31, who had shocked Malaysia's eighth seed Lee Zii Jia in the opening round, needed just 39 minutes to see off Rasmus Gemke 21-12, 21-9.
Bangkok: Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Sameer Verma stormed into the quarterfinals of the Toyota Thailand Open after registering straight-game wins but HS Prannoy bowed out of Super 1000 tournament here on Thursday.
Olympic silver medallist Sindhu expectedly outclassed Malaysia's world No. 92 Kisona Selvaduray 21-10, 21-12 in a lop-sided second-round contest that lasted just 35 minutes. She will face either Thailand's Ratchanok Inthanon or Korea's Sung Ji Hyun next.
"The first game was pretty easy and in the second, I had to play with the wind and really control my strokes. I made some simple errors in the second game and they were ones I should not have made at all. There was too much wind in the second game and I was being careful," Sindhu said.
"I was remembering last week's tournament and each point was really important for me. We all win and lose, so I took last week in a really positive way and came in much stronger this week. Overall, it's a good win and I'm really looking forward to the next round."
Sameer stunnned world No. 17 Rasmus Gemke in a second round match.
The world No. 31, who had shocked Malaysia's eighth seed Lee Zii Jia in the opening round, needed just 39 minutes to see off Gemke 21-12, 21-9.
This was Sameer's third victory over Gemke. He had defeated the Danish shuttler in their previous two clashes.
Sameer will face third seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark, who received a walkover, in the quarterfinals.
"I was very confident before the match. I came prepared. Next up I have Anders Antonsen. I'm feeling very confident, so let's see. It will be tough but I will play my best," Sameer said.
The mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also made it to the quarterfinals with a stunning 22-20, 14-21, 21-16 win over world No. 17 German duo of Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich in a match that lasted close to an hour.
Prannoy, however, failed to cross the second hurdle, going down 17-21, 18-21 to Malaysia's Daren Liew, a day after battling through pain to upstage Asian Games champion Jonatan Christie in a gruelling three-game match.
Earlier, Gemke was no match for Sameer, who showed better control and execution to dominate the proceedings right from the word go.
The Indian opened up a 3-0 lead and kept marching ahead to grab a six-point advantage at the break.
Gemke tried his best but couldn't trouble Sameer, who easily claimed the first game.
In the second game, Gemke managed to hold slender leads of 3-1 and 5-3 but Sameer broke off at 6-6 and never looked back.