In the Senior National Badminton Championship at Guwahati, Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu sailed into the semi-finals, while Nagpur’s Vaishnavi Bhale and Ashmita Chaliha of Assam booked their maiden last-4 spots.

Sindhu had an easy outing as she defeated Riya Mookerjee 21-16, 21-7 to progress to the semis on Thursday.
Vaishnavi dug deep to eke out a hard-fought 19-21, 22-20, 21-11 win over third seed Shriyanshi Pardeshi.

Local sensation Ashmita showed great resilience to secure a 16-21, 21-17, 21-19 win over Aakarshi Kashyap. Ashmita has now set up a semifinal clash against Sindhu.

Saina, who had refused to play her pre-quarterfinal against Shruti Mundada due to uneven surface of the court, later played and won 21-11, 21-10, to enter the last-8.

Parupalli Kashyap, seeded third, beat Rahul Yadav, 20-22, 21-17, 21-17 to book a quarterfinal berth. Second placed B. Sai Praneeth defeated Rohit Yadav 21-10, 21-10 to set up a quarterfinal meeting with Sourabh Verma.

Earlier, Lakshya Sen and Kaushal Dharmamer progressed to the last four with straight game wins over their respective opponents. Top seed Sameer Verma conceded an encounter against Aryamann Tandon midway at 21-16, 1-8 after aggravating a achilles heel problem.