Macau Grand Prix Gold: PV Sindhu,HS Prannoy in quarters, B Sai Praneeth bows out

Macau: P V Sindhu and H S Prannoy entered the quarterfinals of the women's and men's singles of the Macau Grand Prix Gold after posting hard-fought victories in their respective matches, here today.

However, it was curtains for B Sai Praneeth, who went down fighting against Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia in his third round match of the men's singles event.

Sindhu, who today dropped a place to be out of top-10 in world rankings, had to face a tough challenge from Indonesia's Lindaweni Fanetri before prevailing 21-16 16-21 21-19 in a contest that last an hour and five minutes.

The seeded-second Sindhu was initially trailing behind the Indonesian girl in the opening game, before she could catch her at 10-10 and then took a 11-10 lead at the break.

After the break, the Indian simply surged ahead to 16-11. And even though the Indonesian managed to minimise the gap at 16-17, Sindhu eventually wrapped it up pretty comfortably.

Unseeded Fanetri, however, stunned Sindhu in the second game as she not just opened up a 7-1 lead but never let the Indian climb back into the game, taking it to the decider.

In the third game also, the World No.11 Indian shuttler was far behind her rival.

Fanetri was leading 11-3 at the break and then extended it to 16-6. But just when it seemed all but over for Sindhu, the Indian first snatched four points on a trot and then added another seven consecutive points to her kitty to catch Indonesian at 17-17.

Sindhu then held on to her nerves to seal the issue in her favour.

In the quarterfinal, Sindhu will take on Li Han of China.

In the men's singles, Prannoy, seeded third, came from a game down to register 17-21 21-19 21-14 win over Lin Yu-Hsien of Chinese Taipei in 56 minutes.

He will now face Sony Dwi Kuncoro, who had earlier today had beaten eighth seeded Praneeth 21-16 19-21 21-17 in a match that lasted an hour and seven minutes.