Fuzhou (China): Shuttler PV Sindhu defeated Evgeniya Kosetskaya of Russia to advance into the second round of the China Open badminton tournament while it was the end of the road for men’s and women’s doubles pairs here Tuesday.
The third seed and World No.3 Sindhu had a relatively easy outing defeating her Russian opponent in straight games 21-13, 21-19 in less than 30 minutes hardly breaking any sweat.
Sindhu was at her dominating self as she ruled over the court with her quality shots and smashes giving her opponent no clue about what was going winning the opening game.
In the second game, her Russian opponent bounced back and tried to match the pace of the Indian shuttler but failed in doing so with Sindhu wrapping up the issue narrowly. The Rio Olympic silver medallist Sindhu will now take on Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand in the next round.
However, it was a bad day for the women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy as the duo bowed out of the meet losing to Shiho Tanka and Koharu Yonemoto. The Indians lost 19-21, 21-15, 17-21 in a marathon match lasting an hour and nine minutes.
In men’s doubles category too, it was all over for Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy as the Indian duo lost to Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup of Denmark. The Danish duo defeated India’s Attri and Reddy 21-16, 27-25 in a match which lasted 46 minutes. The Indian pair seemed good but lacked finishing towards the end which cost them the match.