CWG 2022: PV Sindhu, Srikanth Sail Into Badminton Singles Pre-Quarters

CWG 2022: PV Sindhu defeated Fathimath Razzaq 21-14, 21-11 to advance to the round of 16 in women's singles.

CWG 2022: Indian shuttler PV Sindhu in action during women's singles badminton at Commonwealth Games 2022.

(Photo: PTI)

Ace Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Kidambi Sriknath sailed into the pre-quarterfinals of their respective singles events after scoring comfortable victories at the Commonwealth Games on Thursday.

It was always going to be a tough task for Fathimath against the two-time Olympic medallist, who pocketed the Round of 32 match 21-4 21-11 in just 21 minutes.

Sindhu, the last edition's silver medallist in the singles, hardly broke a sweat while toying with her opponent in the first game.

Without adopting an aggressive approach, Sindhu outfoxed the Madives shuttler with her all-round game. She mostly used her deceptive drops shots to garner points.

In the second game, Fathimath produced some resistance initially and was on level terms with Sindhu till 9-9, as the Indian mostly gave away points on unforced errors.

But Sindhu got her composure back and went into the breather leading 11-9.

After the break, it was all Sindhu as she ran away with the game with Razzaq managing just two points, to book her place in the last-16.

In the round of 16, the 27-year-old shuttler will be up against the winner of match between Kenya’s Saumya Gupta and Uganda’s Husina Kobigabe. The match will take place on August 5.

Srikanth was crestfallen after losing his singles match against lower-ranked Tze Yong Ng of Malaysia in the mixed team final but the world number 13 seemed to have taken it in his stride as he comfortably beat his rival.

He used his cross-court angled drop shots to good effect to pocket points.

Most of the points which the Ugandan shuttler managed were from unforced errors of Srikanth.