Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu and B Sai Praneeth moved into the quarterfinals of Japan Open tournament after registering contrasting wins. But it was curtains for H.S. Prannoy in Tokyo today. While fifth seed Sindhu had to toil hard in an hour-long battle to get the better of unseeded Japanese Aya Ohori 11-21, 21-10, 21-13 in a second-round women’s singles match, Praneeth sailed past another local shuttler, Kanta Tsuneyama, 21-13, 21-16 in a men’s singles encounter that lasted 45 minutes.
H S Prannoy crashed out of the men’s singles event after going down to Rasmus Gemke of Denmark 9-21, 15-21 in the second round. Sindhu will next face fourth-seeded Japanese Akane Yamaguchi, to whom she lost in the final of the Indonesia Open last week. Sai Praneeth will face Indonesia’s Tommy Sugiarto in the men’s singles last-eight round.