Saina, Kashyap enter quarter, Sindhu progress to semis at Senior Nationals
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu expectedly sailed into the semifinals with two straight-game wins, while defending champion Saina Nehwal entered the quarters after winning a late pre-quarterfinal match on a day of intense drama at the 83rd Senior National Badminton Championship here Thursday.
Sindhu went about her business as usual, beating Riya Mookerjee 21-16 21-7 in 28 minutes to progress to the semifinals on a day when three prequarterfinals were postponed due to uneven court surface at the Assam Badminton Academy.
The top seed from Hyderabad, a former champion, had opened her campaign with a 21-11 21-13 win over Nagpur's Malvika Bansod in the morning.
Saina, who had refused to play her prequarterfinals against Pune's Shruti Mundada at the same court due to "uneven" surface earlier in the morning, finally walked out to play her match late evening after the organisers managed to prepare a fresh court over a wooden plank at the TRP Indoor stadium here.
The Olympic bronze ...