(Birmingham): Indian shuttlers will eye a spot in semi-finals of the ongoing All England Championships 2018 Day 3. India had a mix 2nd day at the prestigious contest as Srikanth, Satwik/Chirag and Sikki/Pranaav bowed out of the championship hunt. On the other hand third seed Sindhu managed to win against Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand and unseeded HS Prannoy got the better of Tommy Sugiarto.
Srikanth faced a humilating lost to unseeded Huang Yuxiang of China in the USD 1000,000 All England Championship here. The Indian ace took some time to get settled in the opening game and eventually lost it 11-21. Srikanth showed some determination and won the second game 21-15 to force a decider. Third game saw some neck to neck battles but it was the Chinese who held his nerves and took the game and match 11-21,21-15,22-20.
India’s promising doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty suffered a heartbreak lose to the second seeded Danish combo of Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen 21-16 16-21 23-21 in an hour and three minutes. Satwik’s lethal smashes proved unreturnable for the Danes but their class and experience proved way too good on the given day.
The mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy, failed to put up a fight against second seeds Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping of China, losing 6-21 10-21 in 24 minutes.
HS Prannoy who yesterday slipped four places to 16th spot in BWF rankings, continued his good run in the tournament as he defeated unseeded Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia. In a match spanning 38 minutes, he won 21-10, 21-19 to advance in quarter final.
Prannoy will now face unseeded Huang Xuxiang in the quarter finals, who earlier defeated fellow Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth. It would be on Prannoy to avenge the defeat of his counterpart.
Olympic silver medalist PV Sindhu was streched by Nitchaon Jindapol in a match which went to the decider. Sindhu won the first game comfortably 21-13, but then the Thai opponent’s fast movement on the court didn’t let Sindhu control the rallies and Jindapol won the second game 13-21. In a tough third game, the deficit of points almost remained negligible and it went right down to the wire. At one point it was 18-18 but Sindhu took three straight points to take the game and match 21-13, 13-21, 21-18.
She will now face the tough challenge from the world Champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the quarter finals of All England Championships 2018 Day 3. The Japanese lead 5-4 in the head to head battles. Okuhara outplayed Sindhu 18-21,8-21 when they last met in Yonex Japan Open 2017.
All England 2018 will also see Lin Dan squaring off against Lee Chong Wei in a quarters clash.
All England Championships 2018 Day 3 : Indian Challenge in quarter finals
Nozomi Okuhara(Japan) vs Pusarla venkata Sindhu(India)
HS Prannoy(India) vs Huang Xuxiang(China)
