Rio 2016 | Srikanth, Sindhu enter badminton quarters while boxer Vikas Krishan loses on Day 10

SportsCafe Desk
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Badminton stars Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu upset higher-ranked rivals to enter the quarterfinal of their respective events on Day 10. However, boxer Vikas Krishan lost his quarterfinal bout even as India's track & field athletes failed to mark a mark in their events.

Badminton

After Saina Nehwal’s loss, Kidambi Srikanth took the responsibility on his shoulders and stormed into the quarters of the men’s singles event at Rio by defeating Denmark’s Jan O Jorgensen 21-19, 21-19. Srikanth will face World No. 3 Lin Dan of China in the quarter-final match on August 17.

Jorgensen, who is world No.5, led the head-to-head record 2-1 going into the match, and started the match on a positive note taking a 3-1 lead in the first set. However, Srikanth bounced back quickly and with some good attacking play took the lead at 4-3. Srikanth, who was playing an attacking game at the start of his career, has changed his game in this Olympic year as he waited for his opportunities and attacked when the opportunity presented itself. He went into the break with an 11-9 lead and kept the lead from there on with some good body smashes against the Dane. Srikanth finally took the set 21-19 with a lovely smash that left Jorgensen stranded at mid-court.

In the second set, although Jorgensen once again started with a lead, Srikanth bounced back and once again went into the break with an 11-10 lead. But, Jorgensen was not in a mood to surrender tamely, and took the lead at 14-13 against the Indian. But, Srikanth drew par at 17-17 with some classy smashes and took a 20-18 lead. Although Jorgensen saved the first match point, Kidambi made a down-the-line smash to finish the match.

Srikanth will now face World No.3 and 2008 and 2012 Olympics gold medallist Lin Dan in the quarters on Wednesday (August 17).

PV Sindhu added to the good news from the badminton court and brought down World No. 8 Tai Tzu-ying 21-13, 21-15 to enter the quarterfinal of the women's event.

Sindhu started well, and with a lovely smash went up 2-1. After a neck-to-neck race until 4-4, Sindhu broke free with some aggressive play. At 10-6, she had Tai sprawled on the forecourt with a beautiful drop, and then just stepped over to send the shuttle floating to the back. The Indian took another point to reach the mid-way stop at 11-6. After 16-13, Sindhu reeled off five straight points as Tai T Y made unforced error after error and won the first set.

The Hyderabad lass started well in the second set as well, but Tai fought back to make it 6-6. Sindhu, needing to reassert herself, came up with some brilliant smashes to subdue Tai's challenge and go to 11-6 in one go. It was all downhill from there for the Taipei lady as she went on an error-making spree to let the Indian get away to 15-7. Tai fought back a bit, but Sindhu was not letting this set get away and finally won it 21-15 to enter the quarterfinal of the women's event.

But a tough task lies ahead as she faces 2012 Silver medalist and World No. 2 Wang Yihan in the quarters at 3:30 AM IST tomorrow.

Athletics

Renjith Maheswary failed to qualify for the men’s triple jump final after managing a best jump of 16.13. His other two attempts were 15.80 and 15.99.

Srabani Nanda was fifth heading into the straight, but finally ended up at sixth place with a timing of 23.58 well behind the No.1 in the heat, Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria, who finished with a timing of 22.71.

Lalita Babar finished 10th with a timing of 9:22.74 in the 3000m steeplechase final. She had qualified for the final with a national record-timing.

Seema Punia meanwhile failed to qualify for the finals of Women's discus. He throw could only garner a distance of 57.58m, leaving her ranked 20th amongst the competition.

Wrestling

Ravinder Khatri crashed out of the Greco-Roman 85 kg wrestling event after losing 0-9 to Viktor Lorincz of Hungary.

Boxing

Vikas Krishan lost his quarterfinal bout against Bektemir Melikuziev of Uzbekistan 27,26,26 to 30,30, 30 to crash out of the  75kg category boxing event.

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