2016 Rio Olympics: Shuttlers PV Sindhu & K Srikanth Enter Quarter-Finals

Rio de Janeiro: Day 10 of 2016 Rio Olympics was similar to the week gone by for India, with several ousters and few silver linings. And the silver lining was brought by badminton players PV Sindhu and K Srikanth, both of whom have entered quarter-finals of men’s singles and women’s singles respectively.

India's two standing badminton players, Srikanth and Sindhu kept the country's slim medal hopes alive with wins in the quarterfinals. However, both their next matches will be against higher ranked Chinese players, and will be their toughest draws of the campaign so far.

Srikanth, ranked 11th in the world, topped Group H and became the second shuttler after P Kashyap in the 2012 London Games to reach the last eight in men’s singles. Srikanth continued his commanding form to register a 21-19, 21-19 win over Denmark’s Jan Jorgensen in just 42 minutes.

In a hard fought first game, both shuttlers started on an attacking note, but it was Srikanth who managed to maintain the lead with some bodyline smashes. Jorgensen, bronze medalist in the 2014 World Championships, gave a tough fight at the end but it was the Indian lad who proved superior to clinch the first game 21-19.

In the second game, the Danish player upped the ante and played a disciplined game to maintain the lead from the start. But with some swift court movements, the Indian diminished the lead to stay at 17-17 and then took a one-point lead to make it 19-18 before wrapping up the game to advance into the quarter-finals.

Srikanth will now face the tough task of beating China's Lin Dan, the two-time defending champion and five-time world champion.

PV Sindhu, two-time World Championship bronze-medallist, advanced to the quarterfinals of the women's singles, after notching up a dominating straight-game win over Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying.

Interestingly, before Monday's match, Tzu-ying had enjoyed a 4-2 advantage in head-to-head encounters against Sindhu. But the 21-year-old was in superb form and dominated her opponent throughout.

Tzu-ying gave Sindhu a tough fight in the early stages. Even with the Indian serving for the match at 20-12, Tzu-ying managed to save three match points and pull back to 20-15. But Sindhu didn't have to wait long to celebrate, as another unforced error by Tzu-ying handed her the game and the match.

Sindhu will face World No two Wang Yihan of China, which is expected to be a much tougher challenge.