Badminton
Sindhu, Srikanth & Sen cruise into quarterfinals in badminton at CWG
Star Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu, Kidambi Srikanth, and Lakshya Sen all recorded straightforward victories on Friday to go quickly to the quarterfinals of the singles competition at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Husina Kobugabe of Uganda offered no opposition to Sindhu, a silver medalist at the 2018 competition, and she easily defeated her in their pre-quarterfinal match by scores of 21-10, 21-9.
In the men’s singles competition, Srikanth, who had also placed second at the Gold Coast, defeated Sri Lanka’s Dumindu Abeywickrama by scores of 21-9 and 21-12 without breaking a sweat.
Sen, who won the bronze medal at the global championships, defeated Australia’s Ying Xiang Lin 21-9, 21-16 to advance to the last eight, while Aakarshi Kashyap defeated Cyprus’ Eva Kattirtzi 21-2, 21-7 to easily advance to the quarterfinals.
Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, who won silver at the Commonwealth Games, defeated Pakistan’s Murad Ali and Muhammad Irfan Saeed Bhatti 21-8, 21-7 to go to the men’s doubles quarterfinals.
Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly of India earlier advanced to the round of eight with a 21-2, 21-4 victory over Jemimah Leung For Sang and Ganesha Mungrah of Mauritius.
The two-time Olympian Sindhu will compete against Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in the following round to get to the semifinals.
In the mixed team competition final, Sindhu overcame Goh in two close games. She cannot afford to let her guard down against the Malaysian, 22, who won gold at the World Junior Championships in 2015 and 2018.
