Srikanth enters Swiss Grand Prix semis, Praneeth exits

Top seed Kidambi Srikanth stormed into the semi-finals of the US $120,000 Swiss Grand Prix Gold badminton championship after a straight games victory over Takuma Ueda of Japan in the men’s singles quarter-finals in Basel on Friday.

The Indian beat the eighth seed 21-11, 21-12 in 31 minutes.

The world No 4 led throughout the match at the St Jakobshalle stadium.

Earlier in the pre-quarter-finals on Thursday night, he suffered a scare before prevailing over Denmark's Emil Holst 14-21, 21-15, 21-18 in a battle that lasted 67 minutes.

It was curtains, however, for 12th seed B Sai Praneeth, who went down to seventh seed Hsu Jen Hao of Chinese Taipei 18-21, 12-21 in another pre-quarter-final.

Image: Kidambi Srikanth