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Barcelona Masters: Saina, Srikanth advance to pre-quarterfinals

11:21 AM Feb 20, 2020 | PTI |

Barcelona: India’s Olympic bronze medallist shuttler Saina Nehwal advanced to the women’s singles pre-quarterfinals of the USD 170,000 Barcelona Spain Masters with a 21-16 21-14 win over Germany’s Yvonne Li here on Wednesday.

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Sania took just 35 minutes to beat her opponent in the first round match. In men’s singles, Kidambi Srikanth and Ajay Jayaram sailed into the pre-quarterfinals with easy wins over their respective opponents.

While Jayaram beat Christo Popov of France 21-14 21-12 in a 30-minute first-round match, third-seeded Srikanth defeated compatriot Subhankar Dey 23-21 21-18 in a hard-fought 41-minute contest.

Srikanth and Jayaram run into each other in the pre-quarterfinals on Thursday.

Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki N Reddy also won their mixed doubles first-round match against Denmark’s Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra Boje 10-21 21-16 21-17.

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However, H S Prannoy lost to Malaysian Daren Liew 18-21 15-21 to bow out of the tournament.

P Kashyap also bowed out of the tournament after retiring midway in the third game against Ygor Coelho of Brazil. The Indian was training 12-14 then after two rivals have won a game each.

Saina is looking to keep her Tokyo Olympic hopes alive after an inconsistent outing in 2019 and she also didn’t enjoy a good start this year. She has crossed the first round in only one of the three events in 2020.

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