Madrid Spain Masters: PV Sindhu cruises to pre-quarters; Kidambi Srikanth knocked out

Star Indian shuttler PV Sindhu progressed to the second round of the Madrid Spain Masters with a straight-game win over Canada's Wen Yu Zhang in the first round on Wednesday.

Along progressing was the mixed doubles pairing of B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy. However, Kidambi Srikanth, coming off a semifinal finish at the Swiss Open Super 300 last week, could not negotiate the challenge from Japanese qualifier Koo Takahashi.

Sindhu, who finished as runner-up in the last edition of the tournament in Madrid, saw off world no. 49 Zhang 21-16, 21-12 in a lop-sided contest. It was not much hard work for former world champion Sindhu as she raced to an early lead in the first game of 4-1.

Zhang came back to lead 7-5 but Sindhu didn't back down and made a comeback with her winners before the interval. After resumption, the star Indian player pulled away from a 14-14 deadlock to seal the opening game 21-16.

The second game was much easier for Sindhu as Zhang could not put up much fight and lost the game 21-12. Sindhu jumped to an 11-6 lead at the interval after the game was locked at 4-4 at one stage. The Indian kept moving ahead as Zhang's game crumbled under pressure.

Sindhu benefited from Zhang's too many unforced errors, with her playing her returns either into the net or getting the shuttle wide and long numerous times.

Sindhu will face Chinese Taipei's Huang Yu-Hsun in the Round of 16 on Thursday.

Series of first-round exits

However, it was the curtain for world no. 27 Srikanth. As the expectation soared on the former world no. 1 following his solid show at the Swiss Open, Srikanth crumbled against world no. 61 Takahashi, who handed out the Indian shuttler a 21-18, 21-15 defeat to advance to the pre-quarterfinals.

Ashmita Chaliha lost to Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in straight games 13-21, 11-21.

Ashmita enjoyed a massive lead in the first game but after the interval, Intanon capitalised on her experience with the Indian player succumbing to her errors. In the second game, Ashmita's game fell off a cliff as Intanon raced away to a big win.

In the mixed doubles, Aadya Variyath and Sathish Kumar Karunakaran, who earlier lost his men's singles match to Jason Teh, went down in straight games to Rinov Rivaldy and Pitha Haningtyas of Indonesia in straight games 21-18, 21-14.

However, the other mixed doubles pairing of Sumeeth Reddy and Sikki Reddy registered a come-from-behind win over Chen Zhi Ray and Yang Ching Tun of Chinese Taipei.

Sumeeth and Sikki won the contest 16-21, 22-20, 21-14 in 49 minutes.

In men's singles, Mithu Manjunath lost in straight games to Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei. Mithun couldn't match the quality of his opponent and lost 11-21, 12-21. Kiran George also went down in his first-round clash as he lost to Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei 8-21, 10-21