Thailand Open: Sindhu, Sameer Verma enter quarterfinals, Prannoy loses

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.