- Saina Nehwal and Carolina Marin’s quarter-final match will start tentatively around 10:45am IST
- PV Sindhu takes on defending champion Nozomi Okuhara at 7:30pm IST.
- Sai Praneeth’s men’s quarters match against Kento Momota will start at 6:30pm IST.
The 2018 Badminton World Championships is in the quarter-finals stage and 5 Indians are still in the fray to finish on the medal podium on Sunday.
PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Sai Praneeth and the mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy will all be seen in action on Friday. Here’s a look at their opponents and tentative match timings.
Women’s Singles - Quarter-finals
After beating Thai fourth seeded Ratchanok Intanon 21-16, 21-19 on Thursday, Saina entered the women's singles quarter-finals for a record eighth consecutive time. On Friday, she faces old foe Carolina Marin of Spain who defeated 15th seed Sayaka Sato of Japan 21-7, 21-13 in her round three match.
Saina, a two-time World Championships medallist will take the court tentatively around 10:45am IST.
Since Sindhu and Saina are at two different ends of the draw, their paths can only meet in the final on Sunday.
Third seeded Indian PV Sindhu also meets an old rival in her quarter-final match on Friday. Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara is the defending champion at the Worlds but has come into the tournament with an eighth seeding.
Both players managed to win their third round matches in straight games, Sindhu beating South Korean ninth seed Sung ji Hyun 21-10, 21-18 in 42 minutes and Okuhara took out Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei with a 21-18, 22-20 score.
The Sindhu vs Okuhara match is scheduled to start tentatively at 7:30pm IST.
Men’s Singles Quarter-finals
Sai Praneeth is the one Indian left in the men’s singles draw after Kidambi Srikanth suffered a shock defeat to world number 39 Daren Liew of Malaysian on Thursday. The fifth seeded Indian was knocked out 18-21, 18-21 in 41 minutes.
World number 26 Sai Praneeth, unseeded at the tournament,
defeated world number 23 Hans-Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark 21-13, 21-11 in 39 minutes on Thursday. A bit of a tough match lines up for him today as he takes on young Japanese star Kento Momota who beat 16th seed Anders Antonsen 13-21, 21-17, 21-8.
This men’s singles quarter-final should start tentatively at 6:30pm IST.
Mixed Doubles Quarter-finals
Also unseeded at the tournament, India’s mixed doubles pair of
In the mixed doubles, unseeded mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa took down Malaysian seventh seeds Goh Soon Huat and Shevon Jemie Lai 20-22, 21-14, 21-6 to reach the final eight.
A tough match ahead of them today as they play Chinese top seeds Zheng Siwei and
Huang Yaqiong for a spot in the weekend.
This mixed doubles match will start at 10am IST.
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