The Hindu photo.
Singapore: Indian women's badminton pair Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly moved into the quarterfinals of the Singapore Open BWF Super 750 Series badminton. However, India's ace players PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy crashed out of the tournament on Thursday, IANS reported.
Gayatri and Treesa defeated the World No. 2 Korean pair of Baek Na Ha and Lee So Hee in an intense Round of 16 match 21-9, 14-21, 21-15 that lasted close to an hour. They will face the World No.6 Korean pair of Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Earlier in the day, Sindhu faced a defeat against former Olympic medallist Carolina Marin 21-13, 11-21, 20-22 in the second round match. Though Sindhu won the opening game, Carolina squeezed out the remaining two games from the Indian superstar. Out of their 17 meetings thus far on the BWF circuit, Marin beat Sindhu for the 12th time. The last time Sindhu got the better of Marin was back in the quarterfinal of the Malaysia Open back in 2018 when she won in straight games 22-20, 21-19, India Today reported.
The two shuttlers famously faced each other in the final of the Rio 2016 Olympics, where the Spaniard emerged victorious.
With a win on Thursday, Marin extended her head-to-head record over Sindhu to 12-5.
In the men's singles match, Prannoy was outclassed by Japan's Kenta Nishimoto 21-13, 14-21, 21-15 in the hard-fought encounter. The 31-year-old came back strong in the second game after losing the first game. In the final game, Prannoy fell short against his opponent in one hour and 18-minute-long match. Treesa and Gayatri are the only Indian players left in the BWF Super 750 Badminton tournament.