Star Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu registered comfortable victories to advance to the women’s singles second round at the Singapore Open Super 500 badminton tournament on Wednesday.
Nehwal needed some time to settle down against Yulia Yosephin Susanto in the opening game but then sailed through the first round encounter 21-16, 21-11 in 43 minutes. She will now face the winner of the match between Indian qualifier Mugdha Agrey and Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong.
There were no such problem for Sindhu, who needed just 27 minutes to pack off Lyanny Alessandra Mainaky 21-9, 21-7 in the women’s singles first round.
The Rio Olympic silver medallist will next play Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark, who defeated Indonesia’s rising star Gregoria Mariska Tunjung 21-16, 22-20.
Kidambi Srikanth won his opening round match against Thailand’s Sitthikom Thammasin in straight games 21-17, 21-18. The Indian will now face Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Vittinghus in the Round of 32 on Thursday.
HS Prannoy came back from a game down to beat Brice Leverdez 11-21, 21-16, 21-18 in one hour and three minutes to reach the men’s singles second round.
Another good result for India came from Parupalli Kashyap. After coming through the qualifying draw, he defeated Rasmus Gemke of Denmark 21-19, 21-14. He will now face Chen Long in the second round.
Praneeth loses thriller
However, Sai Praneeth put up a spirited fight against world No 1 Kento Momota but ended up on the losing side of a 19-21, 21-14, 22-20 scoreline in the first round match that lasted an hour and 14 minutes. Sai also saved two match points in the decider.
It was curtains for India in the opening round of the men’s doubles competition. The pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy lost against qualifiers Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Kean Hean Loh of Singapore 13-21, 17-21 in their opener.
The mixed doubles pair of Saurabh Sharma and Anoushka Parikh too exited in the opening round after a 12-21, 12-21 defeat against third seeded Thair pair of Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai.
Later, Pranaav Chopra and N Sikki Reddy won the all-Indian mixed doubles encounter against MR Arjun and K Maneesha 21-18, 21-7 in just 26 minutes to advance to the next round.
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