Malang: Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin won a hard fought 3-set victory yesterday, but he couldn’t pull off another escape on Friday where the 24-year-old from Malaysia unable to play with his usual rhythm, went down in straight sets 13-21, 18-21 to Indonesian Wisnu Yuli Prasetyo.
Top men’s seed Kidambi Srikanth became the lone Indian survivor as he defeated Malaysia’s Teck Zhi Soo, seeded 15th, 21-10, 21-5 in a match that lasted just 24 minutes. The 22-year-old Srikanth will take on Indonesia’s Ginting Anthony next.
In the women’s competition, P.V Sindhu who won the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold last week, suffered an unexpected 21-23, 13-21 loss against unseeded He Bingjiao of China in 36 minutes. He Bingjiao took complete control of the match as Sindhu was struggling on the court. In the second set, He Bingjiao was leading 6-5 and then reeled off nine straight points to dash Sindhu’s hope of a comeback in the match.
Facing his old men’s doubles partner, Markis Kido showed Hendra Setiawan he was still as hungry for victory as ever. Kido resurrected his performance with Hendra Aprida Gunawan in front of home fans as they pulled off an upset to defeat No. 1 seeds Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan 21-17, 21-23, 21-8.
In women’s doubles, unseeded Tang Yuanting/Yu Yang crushed second seeds Vivian Hoo/Woon Khe Wei 18-21, 21-13, 21-13 to advance to the semi-finals, while Chow Mei Kuan/Lai Pei Jing couldn’t ride the momentum from an impressive win from yesterday and were sent packing in women’s doubles quarter-finals 14-21, 13-21 in 26 minutes.
