Madrid Spain Masters: Sindhu advances to semis, Srikanth crashes out
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Madrid: PV Sindhu, who has won two Olympic medals, advanced easily to the semifinals on Friday while Kidambi Srikanth, a fellow countryman, lost in the opening round of the Madrid Spain Masters. To advance to her first semifinals of the year, Sindhu defeated world No. 19 Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark 21-14 21-17.
Srikanth, on the other hand, fell to top-seeded Japanese shuttler Kenta Nishimoto 18-21 15-21 in the men's singles quarterfinals.
Sindhu, who is seeded second, has been struggling to find her feet since returning from a long injury layoff.
The 27-year-old has slipped out of the top 10 in the world rankings and until now hadn’t been able to cross the second round in the last few tournaments in 2023
After a sedate start to the match, the former world champion completely dominated the second half of the play to take the first game comfortably.
Sindhu was, however, trailing for most of the second game. But she made an impressive comeback fighting from 6-12 to register a straight-game win.
The lone Indian left in the Super 300 tournament, Sindhu will clash with the unseeded Yeo Jia Min of Singapore for a place in the final.
Earlier the fifth-seeded Srikanth, a former world number one, showed flashes of brilliance but the inconsistency, that has plagued him all season, once again marked the end of him.
It was Srikanth’s third loss to the Japanese shuttler.
With PTI inputs