World Badminton C'ships: PV Sindhu, Praneeth ease into pre-quarters

Rio Olympic silver-medallist PV Sindhu kicked off her campaign at the 2017 World Badminton Championships on a promising note as she trounced Korea's Kim Hyo Min in straight games in the women's singles event here on Tuesday.

The fourth-seed, who received a first round bye, remained dominated throughout the match to register a comfortable 21-16, 21-14 win over her Korean opponent in a one-sided second round clash that lasted 49 minutes.

Sindhu will now cross swords with either 13th seed Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong or Russia's Evgeniya Kosetskaya for a place in the quarter-finals.

In men's singles event, 15th seed B. Sai Praneeth also stormed into the pre-quarterfinals of the tournament following an easy win over Hong Kong's Wei Nan.

Praneeth took 48 minutes to sweep aside Wei Nan 21-18, 21-17 to set the next round face off with Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.

Meanwhile, the Indian mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponappa and B. Sumeeth Reddy suffered a major blow as they knocked out of the tournament after slumping to a 17-21, 21-18, 5-21 defeat at the hands of Chinese team of Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping.

Elsewhere, the Indian men's duo of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N. Sikki Reddy also made it to the third round after defeating Malaysian-Indian team of Yogendran Khrishnan and Prajakta Sawant 21-12, 21-19 in a clash that lasted 40 minutes.

The Indian pair will now lock horns with Indonesian duo of Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto for a place in the quarter-finals.

-ANI