Top seed P.V. Sindhu stormed into the women’s singles semifinals of the Malaysia Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament with a 21-17, 21-17 win in 37 minutes over Hera Desi of Indonesia in the quarterfinals at Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. Sindhu had defeated Ngan Yi Cheung of Hong Kong 11-21, 21-18, 21-10 in the second round earlier in the day.
Meanwhile in men’s singles, 11th seed R.M.V. Gurusaidutt’s campaign ended in the quarterfinals as he conceded his match to Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin of Malaysia. The Indian retired in the second game, trailing 2-5 after the Malaysian had won the first game 21-19. Gurusaidutt had beaten Riichi Takeshita 21-19, 21-16 in his third-round match.
The other Indians in men’s singles, K. Srikanth and Sameer Verma, lost their respective third-round ties. While Verma lost to Yan Kit Chan 15-21, 19-21 in 36 minutes, the third-seeded Daren Liew took 42 minutes to get the better of Srikanth 21-17, 22-20.