2019 BWF World Championships: Sindhu Defeats Pai Yu Po, Nehwal Downs Visch Eijbergen To Sail Into Pre-Quarters

PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal booked their place in the pre-quarterfinals of 2019 BWF World Championships after registering clinical wins in their respective second round encounters

PV Sindhu

India's top female shuttler P V Sindhu put up a clinical performance to beat Chinese Taipei's Pai Yu Po 21-14, 21-15 in the second round of the BWF World Championships and book her place in the pre-quarterfinals of the women's singles event at Basel on Thursday. The two-time silver medallist, who had reached the finals of Indonesia Open last month, looked in all conquering mode in the second round tie after getting a bye in the opening round. Sindhu will now take on Beiwen Zhang of USA, who defeated Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen of Australia in straight games 21-14, 21-13. In the match on Wednesday, Sindhu was dominant in the first game taking a 11-7 lead at the break and then clinched six points to close it with a cross court return as Pai erred at the backline. In the second game, Pai was neck to neck with Sindhu 11-10 at the break owing to some unforced errors by the Indian shuttler, but the Olympic silver medallist came out stronger after the interval and win 21-14. In women's singles, Saina Nehwal took just 33 minutes to trounce her Dutch opponent Soraya de Visch Eijbergen 21-10, 21-11 to join PV Sindhu in the Round of 16. Nehwal hardly faceed any resistence in the first game as it took her just 13 minutes to clinch the opener.World No. 10 Nehwal showed glimpses of some excellent drop shots and her deception proved too good for the Dutch player to catch up in the first game as the Indian won it 21-10 with a powerful smash.The Indian will next face Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt who is seeded 12th in the competition.