New Delhi: Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu advanced to the second round of the BWF India Open, making a winning start in her first event since marriage on a mixed day for India as fifth-seeded women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand crashed out of the Super 750 event here on Tuesday.
Sindhu, who is hoping to make it back into the top 10 by overcoming the recent slump in her form and rankings, defeated Sung Shuo Yun of Chinese Taipei 21-14, 22-20 in a 51-minute encounter in the women’s singles Round of 32 at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium here.
Treesa and Gayatri, the Commonwealth Games bronze medallists, were stunned by the unseeded Japanese pair of Arisa Igarashi and Ayako Sakuramoto in a hard-fought clash, going down 21-23, 19-21 in a close encounter.
Former World No.1 Srikanth Kidambi, who got a late entry into the main draw following some withdrawals, failed to turn up for his match and China’s World No. 21 Hong Yang Weng advanced to the Round of 16 with a walkover.
Fellow Indian Kiran George, another late entry into the main draw, advanced to the second round with a hard-fought three-game win over Yushi Tanaka of Japan, who is ranked 25th in the BWF Rankings.
Kiran, the World No. 38, won the men’s singles Round of 32 match 21-19, 14-21, 27-25 in the 71-minute encounter.
The mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila/Tanisha Crasto also reached the Round of 16, beating Cheng Kuan Chen/Yin-Hui Hsu of Chinese Taipei in three games, coming back after losing the first game to win 6-21, 21-10, 21-17 in 51 minutes on Court 1.
In women’s singles, Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon was among the top players to advance to the next round. She defeated Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 21-13, 21-15 in a clash between two former World Champions that lasted 36 minutes.
–IANS
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