Sindhu loses; Praneeth, Srikanth enter Singapore semi-finals

Olympic silver-medallist P V Sindhu suffered a crushing quarterfinal loss to arch-rival Carolina Marin but B Sai Praneeth and Kidambi Srikanth dished out gritty performances to enter the men's singles semifinals of the Singapore Open Super Series here on Friday.

Sindhu, who had reached a career-best World No.2 after winning the India Open by beating Olympic champion Marin in New Delhi, went down 11-21 15-21 in a lopsided quarterfinal match. Praneeth, however, battled for an hour and 11 minutes to eke out a 15-21 21-14 21-19 win over eighth-seeded Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk of Thailand. Srikanth smashed past Chinese fifth seed Shi Yuqi 21-14, 21-16 in 36 minutes to set-up a last four clash against Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting. In the mixed doubles competition, B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 11-21 8-21 to the third-seeded Chinese duo of Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong.

In the mixed doubles competition, B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 11-21 8-21 to the third-seeded Chinese duo of Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong. It was a rare bad day in office for Sindhu as she was completely outwitted by arch-rival Marin, who showed tremendous agility and pounced on every opportunity to emerge victorious. Sindhu, who had dropped down to world No.5 due to her first round exit at the Malaysia Open last week, never looked the player who had outsmarted Marin not too long back in Delhi. The Indian just couldn't match up to the pace of Marin. Sindhu tried a late comeback but it was too little too late as Marin grabbed the match point with a body smash. Sindhu then handed over the match to the Spaniard with a service fault.