Defending champion P.V. Sindhu stormed into the women’s quarterfinals of the BWF World Championships with a straight-game win over Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand here on Thursday. Also entering the last eight was K. Srikanth.
World No. 7 Sindhu defeated her Thai opponent, ranked three places below her, 21-14, 21-18 in 48 minutes.
With the win, Sindhu, seeded sixth in the showpiece tournament, extended her head-to-head record against Chochuwong to 5-3. Sindhu also avenged her twin losses to Chochuwong this season — group match of BWF World Tour Finals earlier this month and All England in March.
Sindhu next faces top seed and World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, who beat Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland 21-10, 19-21, 21-11.,
Later, in the men’s singles, 12th seed Srikanth outplayed unseeded Guang Zu Lu of China 21-10, 21-15 to enter the last eight.
However, the Indian women’s and men’s doubles pairs bowed out. Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy lost 13-21, 15-21 to the Thai duo of Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a 20-22, 21-18, 15-21 defeat to Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi of Malaysia.
Sindhu took an early 5-1 lead but Chochuwong rallied to keep pace at 5-4 and then 10-9. The Indian zoomed ahead from there on to pocket the first game.
The second game was a tighter affair, though. Sindhu led 11-6 at the change of ends and the second half saw some long rallies with the Thai player winning a few of them.
Sindhu was leading 16-10 but Chochuwong made a comeback of sort to reduce the gap to 18-15 and then 19-18. Sindhu won a crucial point after a long rally to make it 20-18 before taking the game and match.
The results: Women: P.V. Sindhu bt Pornpawee Chochuwong (Tha) 21-14, 21-18. Doubles: Jongkolphan Kititharakul & Rawinda Prajongjai (Tha) bt Ashwini Ponnappa & N. Sikki Reddy 21-13, 21-15.
Men: K. Srikanth bt Guang Zu Lu (Chn) 21-10, 21-15. Doubles: Ong Yew Sin & Teo Ee Yi (Mas) bt Satwiksairaj Rankireddy & Chirag Shetty 22-20, 18-21, 21-15.
