Madrid Spain Masters 2024 badminton: PV Sindhu cruises into second round; Kidambi Srikanth ousted

Former world champion PV Sindhu secured a comfortable victory over Wen Yu Zhang of Canada to storm into the pre-quarterfinals of the Madrid Spain Masters 2024 badminton tournament at the Centro Deportivo Municipal Gallur on Wednesday.

Seeded second, Sindhu defeated world No. 49 Wen Yu Zhang of Canada 21-16, 21-12 in 30 minutes in her round of 32 match. The two-time Olympic medallist, 11th in the badminton rankings, will now take on world No. 63 Huang Yu-Husn of Chinese Taipei in the second round.

Ashmita Chaliha, however, was ousted in the first round. Up against world No. 14 Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, the Indian badminton player suffered a 21-13, 21-11 loss in 28 minutes.

Similarly, Sathish Kumar Karunakaran was unable to get past Jason Teh of Indonesia in the first round of the men’s singles. Despite a close fight in the second game, he lost 21-15, 21-19 against his world No. 56 opponent.

Karunakaran and his partner Aadya Variath lost 21-18, 21-14 to Indonesia’s Rinov Rivaldy and Pitha Haningtyas Menthari in mixed doubles.

Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth, who was spearheading the men’s singles challenge following the withdrawal of Lakshya Sen, suffered an first-round exit at the hands of world No. 61 Koo Takahashi of Japan. Srikanth, ranked 27th, lost the match 21-18, 21-15.

Mithun Manjunath also lost 21-11, 21-12 to world No. 24 Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei. Tzu Wei’s compatriot Chia Hao Lee, ranked 35th, knocked out India’s Kiran George. As a result, there won’t be any Indian representation in the second round of the men’s singles.

B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy, however, were able to get the better of Chinese Taipei’s Chen Zhi-ray and Yang Ching-tun in mixed doubles. They came back from a game down to win 16-21, 22-20, 21-14 in a 49-minute encounter to advance to the second round.