Badminton players PV Sindhu and Sameer Verma reach Thailand Open quarterfinals

Indian badminton players PV Sindhu and Sameer Verma reached the quarterfinals of the Toyota Thailand Open on Tuesday, after winning their respective qualifying games.

Sindhu beat Malaysia’s world no. 92 Kisona Selvaduray 21-10 21-12 in a second-round game that ran for 35 minutes. The Olympic silver medallist is set to face either Thailand’s Ratchanok Inthanon or Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun next.

“The first game was pretty easy and in the second, I had to play with the wind and really control my strokes. I made some simple errors in the second game and they were ones I should not have made at all. There was too much wind in the second game and I was being careful,” Sindhu said, as per PTI reports.

Verma also continued his impressive streak, beating world no. 17 Danish player Rasmus Gemke 21-12 21-9 in just 39 minutes.

Also Read: Sindhu, Srikanth make impressive starts; Sameer stuns world no 10 Lee at Thailand Open

The World no. 31, who had emerged victorious over Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in the opening round, will face Anders Antonsen of Denmark in the quarterfinals.

“I was very confident before the match. I came prepared. Next up I have Anders Antonsen from Denmark. I’m feeling very confident, so let’s see. It will be tough but I will play my best,” Sameer said, reported PTI.

The mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also made it to the quarterfinals with a 22-20 14-21 21-16 win over the German duo of Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich.

Shuttler HS Prannoy failed to cross the second round, admitting defeat against Malaysia’s Daren Liew.