TOKYO, July 25: Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu and B Sai Praneeth moved into the quarterfinals of Japan Open badminton tournament after registering contrasting wins but it was curtains for HS Prannoy here on Thursday.
While fifth seed Sindhu had to toil hard in an hour-long battle to get the better of unseeded Japanese Aya Ohori 11-21, 21-10, 21-13 in a second round women�s singles match, Praneeth sailed past another local shuttler, Kanta Tsuneyama, 21-13, 21-16 in a men�s singles encounter that lasted 45 minutes.
Prannoy, who knocked out compatriot Kidambi Srikanth in the opening round, though crashed out of the men�s singles event after going down to Rasmus Gemke of Denmark 9-21, 15-21 in the second round.
Her latest result at the BWF World Tour Super 750 tournament extended Sindhu�s head-to-head record to 8-0 over Ohori.
Sindhu will next face the winner of the match between China�s Chen Xiao Xin and fourth seeded Japanese Akane Yamaguchi, to whom she lost in the final of the Indonesia Open last week.
Sai Praneeth will face Indonesia�s Tommy Sugiarto in the men�s singles last-eight round.
It was good news for India in the men�s doubles event as the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty made it to the quarterfinals after emerging victorious in a tough three-game second round affair in 53 minutes.
The Indian pair came from a game down to quell the challenge of China�s Kai Xiang Huang and Cheng Liu 15-21, 21-11, 21-19 and set up a quarterfinal clash with second seeded local combination of Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda.
It was curtains for India in the mixed doubles event as the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 16-21, 17-21 to fourth seeds Dechapol Puavaranukkroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand in the second round. � PTI
