Badminton
Swiss Open: Sindhu, Srikanth, Jayaram advance to quarterfinals
Indian badminton players PV Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth and Ajay Jayaram had a good day as they advanced to the quarterfinals of the singles event at the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament on Thursday.
World Champion PV Sindhu eased past USA's Iris Wang 21-13 21-14 in the women's singles competition.
Former world no 1 Srikanth picked up a 21-10 14-21 21-14 victory over Thomas Rouxel of France and Jayaram eked out a hard-fought 21-18 17-21 21-13 against third-seeded Dane Rasmus Gemke.
Indian mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also progressed to the quarterfinals, defeating the Indonesian pair of Rinov Rivaldy and Pitha Haningtyas Mentari 21-18 21-16. In men’s doubles, second seeds Satwiksairaj and Chirag Reddy pulled off a hard-fought win. They beat Pramudya Kusumawardana and Yeremia Rambitan from Indonesia 21-17, 20-22, 21-17.
While second seed Sindhu meets fifth-seeded Thai Busanan Ongbamrungphan next, Srikanth, who had won the title in 2015, will face sixth-seeded Thai Kantaphon Wangcharoen and Jayaram will be up against another Thai Kunlavut Vitidsarn, seeded eighth, in the last-eight stage.