GUWAHATI, Feb 14 - Rio Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu stormed into the semifinals of the Yonex-Sunrise 83rd Senior National Badminton Championships here today.
Sindhu eased past Riya Mookerjee 21-16, 21-7 in the quarterfinal at the Kanaklata Indoor Stadium in RG Baruah Sports Complex.
Earlier, Sindhu had a facile 21-11, 21-13 victory over Nagpur�s rising star Malvika Bansod to move into the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Harsheel Dani caused the upset of the day by defeating fourth seeded Subhankar Dey 21-15, 21-17.
Ashmita in semis:Local girl Ashmita Chaliha, seeded fourth at this tournament, beat Aakarshi Kashyap 16-21, 21-17, 21-19 in quarterfinal and entired into the semifinals in women�s singles. Earlier, she defeated Vaidehi Choudhari 21-13, 15-21, 21-12 in a gruelling three setter pre-quarterfinal contest. Third seed Shriyanshi Pardeshi trounced Deepshikha Singh 21-3, 21-7 while junior national champion Aakarshi Kashyap stunned former winner Rituparna Das 21-18, 21-12 in the women�s singles.
In one of the most-awaited men�s doubles matches of the day, second seeds Chirag Shetty and Pranaav Jerry Chopra edged past veterans V Diju and Rupesh Kumar KT 21-8, 18-21, 22-20 in a clash of generations to enter the semifinals.
While the top-seeded doubles teams in each section all safely made it to the semifinals with Manu Attri and Maneesha K knocking out second seeded pair of Saurabh Sharma and Anoushka Parikh 21-10, 21-16 in mixed doubles.
