Top seed P.V. Sindhu stormed into the semifinals of the women’s singles event of the Malaysia Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament with a straight-game win over Hera Desi of Indonesia in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
Sindhu, who reached the semifinals of the India Open Super Series here last month, needed just 37 minutes to get the better of her seventh seeded opponent 21-17 21-17 in the a quarterfinal clash.
Sindhu had prevailed over Ngan Yi Cheung of Hong Kong 11-21 21-18 21-10 in a three-game second round match earlier in the day.
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However in the men’s singles, 11th seed R.M.V. Gurusaidutt’s campaign ended in the quarterfinals as he conceded his match against Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin of Malaysia. The Indian retired in the second game which he was trailing 2-5. The Malaysian had won the first game 21-19.
Gurusaidutt had beaten Riichi Takeshita 21-19 21-16 in his third round match.
Other Indians in men’s singles category — K Srikanth and Sameer Verma — lost their respective third round ties to bow out of the tournament.
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Verma lost to Yan Kit Chan 15-21 19-21 in 36 minutes, and Daren Liew, seeded third, took 42 minutes to get the better of Srikanth 21-17 22-20.