India Open: Saina, Sindhu, Sameer advance; heartbreak for Srikanth

On a day when the female stars of Indian badminton sailed to the quarter-finals of the Yonex Sunrise India Open, only Sameer Verma managed to pass the hurdle of the Round of 16 as Kidambi Srikanth, Sourabh Verma and B Sai Praneeth crashed out of the tournament, here at Siri Fort Sports Complex on Thursday.

India Open 2015 winner Saina Nehwal had a relaxed outing as she beat Thailand's Chochuwong Porpawee 21-14, 21-12. Though Saina wrapped up the game in just 33 minutes, she said after the match, "I made the same mistakes like on Wednesday and it could have been below 10 in the second game but I'm feeling better."

However, there will only be one Indian women's singles star in the fray come Friday, as Saina will be facing Sindhu in the quarter-final.

Sindhu, on the other hand, beat Japan's Saena Kawakami 21-16, 23-21 to set up the blockbuster quarter-final on Friday. After walking through the Japanese in the first set, Sindhu faced a tough challenge in the second as both the players forced each other to run across the court for each point and Sindhu emerged victorious with a lucky point in the end.

"It was anybody's game at that moment and I'm glad it turned out well for me." On the Saina-Sindhu clash, the world no. 5 said, "I'm looking forward to the match and I'm going to prepare well and hope that the best comes out."

Sameer Verma kept the Indian flag in the men's singles afloat as he beat veteran Hu Yun of Hong Kong 21-17, 21-15. Post upsetting Korea's Son Wan Ho on Wednesday, Sameer carried his good form forward and stayed in fray for his first India Open title.

It was a heartbreak for Kidambi Srikanth who failed to get anything going for himself and went down to Denmark's Victor Axelsen 7-21, 12-21.

Despite having an upper hand against Victor in terms of head-to-head record, Srikanth was completely outplayed and failed to keep his strokes within the line.

"He played extremely well on Thursday and I just couldn't keep my shots in, Srikanth said after the match. Sai Praneeth also could not keep up to the challenge of the seventh seeded Tien Chen Chou 14-21, 16-21 to crash out of the tournament.

Also, Sourabh Verma let the match slip through his hand as he went down 19-21, 21-14, 20-22 despite being in a winning spot in the final set.

In the doubles bracket, both Ashwini Ponappa-N Sikki Reddy and Pranaav Jerry Chopra-N Sikki Reddy bowed out of the tournament.