Two-time Olympic medallist P.V. Sindhu progressed to the knockout stage of the BWF World Tour Finals with a straight-game win over Germany’s Yvonne Li in her second Group A match here on Thursday.
Quick work
The 26-year-old Sindhu, the only Indian to win the prestigious title in 2018 and a finalist a year before, outplayed World No. 23 Li 21-10, 21-13 in 31 minutes.
The reigning World champion will meet top seed Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand next in her last group match.
World No. 14 K. Srikanth jeopardised his chances of making the knockout stage after going down 18-21, 7-21 to three-time junior World champion Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn in his second Group B match.
Earlier, the women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy suffered a second successive, going down 19-21, 20-22 to Bulgaria’s Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva to bow out of contention.
The top men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty handed a walkover to the top-seeded Indonesian pair of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo after the former complained of knee pain. The duo will not take further part in the tournament.
This was Srikanth’s third defeat to Vitidsarn, having lost to him at the Sudirman Cup in September and Asia Team Championships last year. Malaysian second seed Lee Zii Jia is at the top of the group with two points, while Srikanth and Vitidsarn have a point each.
Lucky Lakshya
On Wednesday, Lakshya Sen made it to the semifinals after his opponent Kento Momota retired with a back injury and Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke conceded his match against compatriot Viktor Axelsen due to a knee injury.
With both Momota and Gemke pulling out, Lakshya and Axelsen are set to qualify from the group.
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