Sindhu, Prannoy advance; Srikanth out of Asia Championships

Two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu sailed into the quarter-finals in the singles event at the Badminton Asia Championships with an easy victory over China's Han Yue in Dubai on Thursday.

Besides Sindhu, India's ace men's singles shuttler HS Prannoy battled his way into the quarters but it was curtains for compatriot Kidambi Srikanth.

While Prannoy, seeded eighth, had to battle it out for an hour and two minutes to prevail over Indonesian Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo 16-21, 21-5, 18-21 in a round of 16 match, Srikanth was shown the door by fourth seeded Japanese Kodai Naraoka 14-21, 22-20, 9-21.

Prannoy will next take on Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan.

Sindhu was at her lethal best as she took just 33 minutes to beat Yue 21-12, 21-15 in the round of 16 match.

Eight seed Sindhu will play second seed An Se Young of Korea in the quarters.
     
In the mixed doubles, Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy entered the last eight after the fourth seeded Korean pair of Seo Seung Jae Chae Yu Jung handed the Indians a walkover.

The Indian duo will next meet Indonesian pair of Dejan Ferdinansyah  Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja.

However, it was curtains for B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa from the mixed doubles as thy lost 15-21, 17-21.

The sixth-seeded Indian pair of Sankireddy and Chirag Shetty also progressed to the quarters of the men's doubles event with a convincing 21-13, 21-11 win over Jin Yong and Na Sung Seung.

The Indian combination will take on third-seeded Indonesian pair of  Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan.