NEW DELHI: Olympic silver medalist PV Sindhu has moved into the third round of the Singapore Open Super Series with a 19-21, 21-17, 21-8 win over Indonesia's Fitriani Fitriani on Thursday.
Fitraini, ranked 27th in women's singles, took the first game but fifth-seeded Sindhu rallied in the second to force the decider, which she then absolutely dominated to enter the round of 16. With a early advantage at 11-4, Sindhu tightened her grasp over her opponent and closed out a resounding win in the final game, 21-8. Sindhu's opponent in the quarter-finals will be one of Chinese Taipei's Chia Hsin Lee or Carolina Marin, her Rio Olympics rival whom she beat in the final of the India Open in New Delhi this month as well as during the Dubai Masters in December.
Sindhu had entered round two of the Singapore Open with a 10-21, 21-15, 22-20 win over Japan's Nozomi Okuhara on Wednesday. On April 6, the 21-year-old had moved to No 2 in the Badminton World Federation rankings following her victory over Marin in the India Open final, but today she fell three spots to fifth. Earlier in the day, the fresh pairing of Ashwini Ponnappa and B Sumeeth Reddyentered the quarters of the mixed doubles event with a 17-21, 21-17, 21-16 over Jae Hwan Kim and Lee So Hee, while B Sai Praneeth reached the men's singles quarters by beating China's Qiao Bin 21-15, 21-23, 21-16.