India off to a flying start

Glasgow, August 21 

India made a promising start at the World Badminton Championships with Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma advancing to the second round here today. 

Eighth seed Srikanth, who won the Indonesia Super Series and Australian Super Series this year, defeated Russia’s Sergey Sirant 21-13 21-12 in less than half-an-hour, setting up a second-round clash with France’s Lucas Corvee for Tuesday.

Verma, who won the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in January, reached the second round after his opponent, Spain’s Pablo Abian, retired midway with the score reading 21-8 17-4 in favour of the Indian. He will meet either England’s Rajiv Ouseph or Czech Republic's Adam Mendrek in the next round. 

The mixed-doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Maneesha K defeated Hong Kong’s Tam Chun Hei and Ng Tsz Yau 24-22 21-17 to start their campaign on a positive note. 

In the men’s singles, it was a nervy start for Srikanth as he missed a few points initially but his smart play at the net and some precise smashes saw him open up an 11-6 lead at the break. After the interval, the Indian tightened his grip on the contest and eventually sealed the opening game with ease. 

In the second game, Srikanth zoomed ahead to 11-5. The duo engaged in some exciting rallies but the Indian always had his nose ahead of his competitor. Srikanth had a cushion of eight points when a return from his rival found the net, giving the Indian an easy passage to second round. 

“I had a decent break after the Indonesian Open and I worked hard before coming here. First rounds can always be tough in a big championship like this, I am happy I came through. It is a confidence booster,” said Srikanth. “I have not set any targets as such, I just want to play and I want to go match by match. I did not think about the second round before this match and now I am only thinking about the next match,” he added.

Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu will open their campaign tomorrow, having got byes in the first round. 

Sindhu wants to change the colour of her medal

Spearheading India’s challenge at the World Championships, Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu says she is in good form and vowed to better the colour of her past two bronze medals. “Ït has been two months since the Australian Open, so I got enough time to practise. Form wise, I am perfectly all right, so I hope to give my best and do well,” said Sindhu.

“I am definitely looking for a medal here and hopefully better than bronze this time. I want to change the colour of my medals, so will fight for that.” — PTI