PV Sindhu advances to second round at All England Open
PV Sindhu easily won her first-round match as did Chirag-Satwik but Kidambi Srikanth endured a shock loss and Parupalli Kashyap fell to Kento Momota.
World No. 7 PV Sindhu went through to the women’s singles second round at the All England Open after a 21-11, 21-17 win over Malaysia’s Soniia Cheah at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham on Wednesday.
PV Sindhu had been in good form coming into the prestigious BWF Super 1000 event, having reached the final of the Swiss Open, where she lost to Olympic champion Carolina Marin.
The Indian badminton ace was at her attacking best in the first game, dictating the pace from mid-court and did not allow Soniia Cheah any openings.
Though the Malaysian competed well in the initial exchanges, PV Sindhu surged ahead after the mid-game break to take the opening game.
The second game followed a similar script. Soniia Cheah seemed to be on top in the early stages, taking advantage of the Indian’s errors.
However, the current world champion came back to take the mid-game lead at 11-10 and then stayed ahead throughout to comfortably close out the match.
PV Sindhu will now face Denmark’s Line Christophersen in the Round of 16.
Srikanth, Kashyap make early exits
Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth suffered a shock defeat in the opening round of the men’s singles as he fell 11-21, 21-15, 12-21 to Nhat Nguyen of Ireland.
Seeded eighth at the event, Kidambi Srikanth quickly conceded the opening game but seemed to have found his groove in the second game which he won.
The Indian badminton player also led for much of the early part of the decider against the unseeded Nguyen but made too many errors to make an early exit.
Commonwealth Games gold medallist Parupalli Kashyap also bowed out after losing 21-13, 22-2o to Japanese world No.1 Kento Momota.
This was Momota’s first competitive match since his car accident last year and though he looked rusty in parts, did enough to progress.
“I’m in good shape but I could not figure out how to play him, at least at the start, and the beginning of the second game. He’s at a better fitness level and I’m getting there,” Kashyap admitted after the match.
“I could play well in patches and push him to a stage where he got a bit nervous so I can take some positives from the second game. It's his (Momota’s) first match and he was very good today for a first round and made very few errors.”
Meanwhile, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy won their first-round men’s doubles match 21-7, 21-10 against the English-Indian pair of Nikhar Garg and Aniruddha Mayekar.
The women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy advanced to the second round after a 21-14, 21-12 win over Thai pair Benyapa Aimsaard and Nuntakarn Aimsaard.
Other Indian badminton results
Men’s Doubles: MR Arjun/Dhruv Kapila (IND) lost 13-21, 12-21 to Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi (MAS)
Women’s Doubles: Meghana Jakkampudi/S Ram Poorvisha (IND) lost 10-21, 15-21 to Alexandra Boje/Mette Poulsen (DEN)
For more updates, visit our live blog of Day 1 of the All England Open.
Lead photo: Badmintonphoto - Courtesy of BWF.