Olympic silver-medallist P.V. Sindhu and Ajay Jayaram advanced to the quarterfinals after registering thrilling three-game wins over their respective opponents in the second round of the $700,000 China Super Series Premier, here on Thursday.
Seventh-seeded Sindhu survived a scare from USA’s Beiwen Zhang before notching up an 18-21, 22-20, 21-17 victory in a women’s singles match that lasted an hour here. The Indian will next take on China’s He Bingjiao.
Jayaram too had to work hard to surpass Wei Nan as he notched up a 20-22, 21-19, 21-12 win over the Hong Kong shuttler in a 56-minute clash.
The three-time Dutch Open champion, Jayaram will face reigning Olympic champion and two-time World champion and All England champion Chen Long of China in the next round.
However, it was curtains for Swiss Open winner H.S. Prannoy after he suffered a 17-21, 19-21 loss to Qiao Bin of China in another men’s singles match.
B. Sai Praneeth had lost his opening round match 16-21, 9-21 to Marc Zwiebler of Germany. Sindhu blew away a 11-7 lead at the break to allow Zhang to come back and level the scores at 13-13. The American soon moved to a 15-13 and 18-15 lead before reeling off the last three points in to pocket the first game.
In the second game, Sindhu once again zoomed to a 8-0 lead but once again she squandered the advantage as Zhang clawed back to first level the scores at 16-16. She soon lead 19-17 but the Indian ensured there was no hiccup this time as she roared back into the contest.
In the decider, Sindhu held a slender 8-6 lead and then broke off at 9-9 to never look back.
It was a tough battle for supremacy as Jayaram’s gallant fight in the opening game ended with a narrow loss after he and Wei moved neck and neck from 11-11 to 20-20.
In the second game, Jayaram erased a 2-6 deficit to draw parity at 9-9. He moved ahead at 14-11 and despite a challenge from Wei, managed to bounce back into the contest after five straight points.
In the decider, Jayaram managed to keep himself at a distance from Wei after opening up a small 7-3 lead. He kept increasing the lead and eventually sealed the issue comfortably. — PTI