Tokyo: PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy moved into the second round of Japan Open badminton tournament with contrasting wins over their respective rivals in the women’s and men’s singles events here, Wednesday.
Fifth seed PV Sindhu took 37 minutes to get the better of unseeded Chinese Han Yue 21-9, 21-17 and set up a clash against Aya Ohori of Japan. Sindhu came agonisingly close to winning her first title of the year before losing to another Japanese Akane Yamaguchi at the Indonesia Open last week.
But it was curtains for eighth seed Kidambi Srikanth, whose poor run of form continued as he crashed out after suffering defeat at the hands of compatriot Prannoy earlier in the day.
Prannoy stunned the higher-ranked Srikanth 13-21, 21-11, 22-20 in a match that lasted 59 minutes at the BWF World Tour Super 750 tournament.
It was disappointment for Sameer Verma as well as he lost to Denmark’s Anders Antonsen in straight games in another men’s singles match. The unseeded Indian lost 17-21, 12-21 in the contest that lasted 46 minutes.
Eighth seed Srikanth, who holds a superior head-to-head record against Prannoy, started off well clinching the first game 21-13. However, Prannoy turned things around in the second game clinching it at 11 as Srikanth committed a number of unforced errors. The decider went down to the wire with Prannoy having the last laugh. He will face Rasmus Gemke of Denmark in the second round.
It was good news for India in men’s doubles as Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated the English pair of Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge 21-16, 21-17 to enter the second round.
But the women’s doubles combination of Ashwini Ponappa and N Sikki Reddy crashed out after losing 16-21, 14-21 against Korea’s So Yeong Kim Korea and Hee Yong Kong.
The Indian mixed doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki Reddy also bowed out of the tournament, losing 11-21, 14-21 to top-seeded Chinese duo of Zhend Si Wei and Huang Ya Qiaong in just 26 minutes.
PTI