It was smooth sailing for Rio Olympics silver medallist P V Sindhu in the Senior National Championship at Guahati. She handed Riya Mookerjee a lesson to remember in playing against an internationally-acclaimed player, with a 21-16, 21-7 scoreline.
Vaishnavi Bhale (Nagpur) and Ashmita Chaliha (Assam) made their last-4 entries for the first time in their careers. Vaishnavi had to summon all her skills and energy for a hard-fought win against third seed Shriyanshi Pardeshi. The scoreline: 19-21, 22-20, 21-11
Local sensation Ashmita showed great resilience to secure a 16-21, 21-17, 21-19 win over Aakarshi Kashyap. Now, the imposing frame of battle-hardened P V Sindhu now stands between Ashmita and a place in the final.
Saina, who had refused to play her pre-quarterfinal against Shruti Mundada due to uneven surface of the court, later played and won 21-11, 21-10, to enter the |ast-8.
Parupalli Kashyap, seeded third, beat Rahul Yadav, 20-22, 21-17, 21-17 to book a quarterfinal berth. Second placed B. Sai Praneeth defeated Rohit Yadav 21-10, 21-10 to set up a quarterfinal meeting with Sourabh Verma.
Earlier, Lakshya Sen and Kaushal Dharmamer progressed to the last four with straight game wins over their respective opponents. Top seed Sameer Verma conceded an encounter against Aryamann Tandon midway at 21-16. 1-8 after aggravating an Achilles heel problem.
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