Madrid Masters: Sindhu, Srikanth enter quarterfinals

Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth moved to the singles quarterfinals of the Madrid Spain Masters badminton tournament with straight game wins in Madrid on Thursday.

Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu dispatched Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonasia 21-16, 21-14 in a little over half an hour to enter her first quarterfinal in 2023.

World number 21 Srikanth pulled off a 21-15, 21-12 second round win over compatriot B Sai Praneeth.

Second seed Sindhu has been struggling for form this season since returning to action following a long injury layoff. It is the first time this year 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.

While World no. 21 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 quarterfinals.

Nishimoto was handed a walkover by France's Arnaud Merkle in their second round contest.

Kiran George and Priyanshu Rajawat crashed out of the men's singles event after suffering second round defeats.

While George went down to Denmark's Magnus Johannesen 17-21, 12-21 in 31 minutes, Rajat was outplayed 14-21, 15-21 by eight seed Toma Junior Popov of France.

Later in the day, Aakarshi Kashyap lost her women's singles pre-quarterfinals match to Japan's Natsuki Nidaira 13-21, 8-21.

Malvika Bansod gave a walkover to top seeded Spanish Carolina Marin, while Ashmita Chaliha was beaten 15-21, 15-21 by Yeo Jia Min in her second round match.

Sameer Verma lost his men's singles Round of 16 match, going down 15-21, 14-21 to Japanese second seed Kanta Tsuneyama.

In men's doubles, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila lost to Japanese duo of Shuntaro Mezaki and Haruya Nishida 16-21, 20-22, while the pairing of Sikki Reddy and Arathi Sara Sunil went down to Japan's Rui Hirokami and Yuna Kato 12-21, 13-21.