Saina, Sindhu in second round
Wuhan (China), April 27
Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu won their respective women’s singles matches to make a resounding start to their campaign at the Badminton Asia Championship here today. This is the last event before the Olympics qualification deadline.
Fifth seed Saina beat Indonesia’s Fitriani 21-16 21-17, while Sindhu brushed aside another Indonesian Maria Febe Kusumastuti 21-10 21-13.
In the next round, world No. 8 Saina will face the winner of the match between Indonesia’s Lindaweni Fanetri and Thailand’s Nitchaon Jindapol, while world No. 10 Sindhu will meet eighth seed Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei.
However, it was a bad day for the other Indians in the fray. Kidambi Srikanth failed to cross the first round hurdle in the men’s singles event after being stunned by unseeded Lee Dong Keun.
The eighth-seeded Indian conceded a one-game advantage to go down 13-21 21-12 21-19 to his Korean rival in a contest that lasted an hour and 15 minutes.
The Korean pair of Chang Ye Na and Lee So Hee defeated Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa 21-15 21-11 in the women’s doubles. The men’s doubles combo of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy suffered a 21-15 21-13 loss to the fifth-seeded Japanese pair of Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa.
The men’s doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar also faced defeat, going down 21-19 21-17 to Or Chin Chung and Tang Chun Man of Hong Kong. — PTI
