Kidambi Srikanth advances to Hylo Open quarters; Sourabh Verma, Ashwini-Sikki crash out

Kidambi Srikanth stormed into the quarter-finals at the Hylo Open BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament in Saarbrucken, Germany on Thursday.

Sixth seed Kidambi Srikanth notched up a hard-fought win against Korea’s Dong Ken Lee in the men’s singles second round. He booked his place in the last eight.

However, Sourabh Verma and women’s doubles pair Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy crashed out in their respective second round outings.

28-year-old Srikanth had to stretch himself before eking out a 21-9, 19-21, 21-10 win in 56 minutes. Former world No. 1 Srikanth got off to a flying start and raced to a 21-9 victory in the second game.

However, the Korean shuttler fought back in the second game forcing the decider. Srikanth took an early lead in the decider and maintained it to seal the fate of Dong Ken Lee.

Prior to this match, Korean Dong Ken Lee was leading the head-to-head record 2-1 against Srikanth. World No. 58 Ken Lee played well in the second game but was completely outclassed by Srikanth in the first and third game.

Srikanth to meet third seed Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong

World No. 15 Srikanth will now lock horns with Hong Kong’s Ng Ka Long Angus, who is seeded third for a spot in the semi-finals.

World No. 9 Ka Long Angus is leading the head-to-head record 3-2 against Srikanth. The Hong Kong player will have the psychological advantage on Friday having won their last two matches against Srikanth.

Sourabh Verma loses in straight games against Thai player

Sourabh Verma proved no match to Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharaoen. Reigning national champion Sourabh lost to Kantaphon Wangcharaoen 13-21, 10-21 in 33 minutes.

Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy went down to Nita Violina Marwah and Syaikah Putri. They lost in straight games in the last 16 clash of women's doubles. The Indonesia combination won 21-15, 21-16 in just 35 minutes.

Lakshya Sen will take on Tzu Wei Wang

World No. 21 Lakshya Sen is pitted against Tzu Wei Wang in another pre-quarter-final match. World No. 11 Tzu Wei Wang had beaten Lakshya Sen in their only previous encounter at the New Zealand Open in 2019.