Singapore: Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy moved to the second round of the Singapore Open Super 750 tournament with contrasting victories here on Tuesday.
Sindhu made light work of Canada’s Wen Yu Zhang to notch a 21-14, 21-9 win in just 31 minutes.
A far tougher challenge awaits the former world champion in the next round, where she will face Tokyo Olympic gold medallist and current world No.5 Chen Yu Fei of China.
World No. 34 Prannoy, meanwhile, had to dig deep for his win. The 32-year-old battled past Denmark’s higher-ranked Rasmus Gemke, fighting back from a game down to triumph 19-21, 21-16, 21-14. He will lock horns with France’s Christov Popov in the round of 16.
However, it was a disappointing day for the rest of the Indian contingent with Malvika Bansod, Anmol Kharb, Priyanshu Rajawat, and Kiran George all crashing out after suffering defeats in their respective opening round singles matches.
Malvika and Priyanshu both let slip a one-game lead.
Malvika lost 21-14, 18-21, 11-21 to Thailand’s eighth seed Supanida Katethong, while Priyanshu fell 21-14, 10-21, 14-21 to seventh-seeded Japanese shuttler Kodai Naraoka in a match that lasted over an hour.
Anmol was outclassed by Chen. The Indian showed grit in the second game before going down 11-21, 22-24.
George, who reached the India Open quarterfinal earlier this year, was defeated by China’s Weng Hong Yang 19-21, 17-21, while R. Santhosh Ramraj lost his men’s singles opener 14-21, 8-21 to South Korea’s Kim Ga Eun.
In mixed doubles, the Indian pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto were beaten 18-21, 13-21 by China’s Cheng Xing and Zhang Chi.
Ashith Surya and Amrutha Parmuthesh also bowed out, losing 11-21, 17-21 to Japan’s Yuichi Shimogami and Sayaka Hobara.
The women’s doubles duo of Kavipriya Selvam and Simran Singh was no match for Korea’s Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee, going down 4-21 9-21.
