PV Sindhu, Parupalli Kashyap storm into semis

Even as the 20th Commonwealth Games entered the last stages, shuttlers PV Sindhu, the top seed in women's section, and Parupalli Kashyap, the men's No. 2 seed, stayed the course and entered the semifinals of the badminton competition.

Sindhu, who crushed Kiwi Anna Rankin 21-10 21-9 in a mere 24 minutes will now meet Canada's Hong Kong-born Michelle Li.

Michelle, who moved from Hong Kong at the age of six and won a medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune in 2009, lost to Sindhu at the Macau Open final last December.

Kashyap, bronze medallist in 2010, had a comfortable win over Daren Liew of Malaysia 21-13 21-14 in 38 minutes. Kashyap was always in command and kept running streaks of four or five points in a row to rout Liew.

Kashyap now meets England's Rajiv Ouseph, the man who beat him in the semifinals in 2010. Ouseph beat Scotsman Kieran Merrilees 21-14 21-7 in 26 minutes to set up a repeat of 2010 semifinal clash with Kashyap.

Kashyap's colleagues RMV Gurusaidutt and Kidambi Srikanth could also join him in the semifinals. Gurusaidutt meets Chong Wei Feng of Malaysia in quarters and Srikanth meets Derek Wong of Singapore.

Gurusaidutt swept past Canadian Andrew D'Souza 21-13 21-9 in 27 minutes in the Round of 16, while Srikanth was stretched for 57 minutes before moving past Sri Lanka's Niluka Karunaratne 20-22 21-16 21-12.