Basel, March 4 : India’s Kidambi Srikanth on Thursday beat France’s Thomas Rouxel in three games to enter the quarter-finals of the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament.Srikanth beat Rouxel 21-10, 14-21, 21-14 in 52 minutes.
He will now face either Thai sixth seed Kantaphon Wangcharoen or the Netherlands’ Mark Caljouw, who had earlier beaten H.S.Prannoy.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also eased into the quarter-finals in the mixed doubles category on Day 3 after beating Indonesia’s Rinov Rivaldy and Pitha Haningtyas Mentari 21-18, 21-16.
Rankireddy and Ponnappa had earlier stunned Indonesian second seeds Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja in their first round tie on the first day of the tournament on Wednesday.
Sourabh Verma’s campaign in Basel came to an end as he lost 17-21, 14-21 to Thai eighth seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn.
Reigning world champion P.V.Sindhu faces USA’s Iris Wang later in the day while second seeded men’s doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty face Indonesia’s Pramudya Kusumawardana and Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan.
Rankireddy and Shetty secured a hard fought 21-18, 19-21, 21-16 win over Scotland’s Christopher and Matthew Grimley.
World championships bronze medallist Sai Praneeth takes on Spain’s Pablo Abian.
Earlier, Sindhu, seeded second in the tournament, beat Turkish world no.29 Neslihan Yigit 21-16, 21-19.Saina Nehwal, on other other hand, lost 16-21, 21-17, 21-23 to Thailand’s Phittayapom Chaiwan on Wednesday.
Praneeth, meanwhile beat Israel’s Misha Zilberman 21-11, 21-14 to ease into the second round while Lakshya Sen, who had pulled out of the Thailand tournaments in January due to injury, lost 16-21, 12-21 to Switzerland’s Victor Svendsen
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