Ace shuttler Kidambi Srikanth becomes World No.1. Moves to Semis in WCG 2018

World No.1 Kidambi Srikanth stormed into the badminton men's singles semi-finals of the 21st Commonwealth Games, thrashing Singapore's Zin Rei Ryan in straight games on Friday. Srikanth, who rose to the No.1 spot in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings on Thursday, hardly lost any sweat in thrashing the Singaporean 21-15, 21-12 at the Carrara Sports Arena. The top seeded Indian looked comfortable as he walked into the mid game break with a 11-7 lead in the opening game. Coming back, the Guntur-born shuttler stiffled the Singaporean to earn his points as Srikanth easily swept the game in 17 minutes.

In the second game, Srikanth breezed away with a 11-5 lead at the breather even as the Singaporean tried hard to come back into the contest.

Srikanth gave little away in the second half and comfortably clinched the contest in 17 minutes.

Kidambi Srikanth will face England's Rajiv Ouseph in the semi-final on Saturday.

The other Indian in the fray, H.S. Prannoy will play Sri Lankan Dinuka Karunaratna in another quarter-final, later on Friday.

London bronze medallist Saina Nehwal thrashed Canada's Rachel Honderich to cruise through to the women's singles semi-finals.

The World No.12 Indian hardly broke a sweat and barring a couple of poor shots towards the end, dominated the contest throughout to comfortably win by a 21-8, 21-13 verdict.

Saina started her domination right from the start, easily pocketing the first game 21-8 in mere 14 minutes.

In the second game, the former World No.1 cruised ahead with a 11-3 lead at the break before the World No.47 gained a few points to reduce the margin but eventually the Indian brought all her experience into play to clinch the contest.

Saina will next face World No.18 Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland in the semi-final on Saturday.

Gilmour progressed to the last four at the cost of another Indian Ruthvika Shivani Gadde, who withdrew midway into their quarter-final match with an injury.

The other Indian in the fray, World No.3 P.V. Sindhu will face Canada's World No. 48 Brittney Tam, later on Friday.