India continue good show

Glasgow, August 22 

PV Sindhu advanced to the pre-quarterfinals after defeating South Korea’s Kim Hyo Min in the second round of the World Championships here today. Sindhu notched up a 21-16 21-14 win over Kim in a 49-minute match to extend her head-to-head record against the Korean to 4-1 in five meetings. The 22-year-old, who received a bye in the opening round, will face either Russia’s Evgeniya Kosetskaya or Hong Kong’s Cheung Ngan Yi, the 13th seed, in the next round.

B Sai Praneeth also registered a straight-game win over Hong Kong’s Wei Nan to reach the second round of the men’s singles event.

Praneeth, seeded 15th, fought back from 5-9 and 14-16 down in the opening game and then erased a deficit of 10-13 and 15-17 in the second game to see off Wei Nan 21-18 21-17 in a 48-minute match.

The 25-year-old Hyderabadi will next take on Indonesia’s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, who is the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympics and Junior World Championships bronze medallist. 

“I was expecting a tough match. I changed my game but the match was getting close. He made some small mistakes and I won. I am happy that I could pull off the match today as this was a tough match. Tomorrow it would be another difficult match and I hope to win,” Praneeth said.

Chopra-Reddy advance

India’s top mixed-doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy, seeded 15th, defeated Indo-Malaysian combo of Prajakta Sawant and Yogendran Khrishnan 21-12 21-19.

However, there was disappointment in store for India in the other mixed-doubles matches as B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa, and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Maneesha K suffered contrasting losses to bow out of the event. Reddy and Ashwini went down fighting 17-21 21-18 5-21 to the Chinese pair of Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping, while Rankireddy and Maneesha lost 20-22 18-21 to Denmark’s duo of Mathias Christiansen and Sara Thygesen.

Easy for Sindhu 

The last time Sindhu had faced Kim, at the 2016 Australian Open, she had suffered a straight-game defeat. The Indian came out firing on all cylinders today  as she dished out a dominating game to zoom to a 8-0 lead in the first game.

Kim won four straight points but the Indian grabbed a comfortable 11-5 lead. The Korean reduced the gap to 8-12 after the break but a determined Sindhu continued to move ahead and reached 16-10. She eventually took a 20-14 lead. Kim saved two game points before the Indian sealed the opening game.

In the second game, Sindhu opened up a 8-3 lead. The Korean managed to reduce the margin to 8-10 but the Indian did not allow Kim to take the lead. Eventually, she took the game 21-14. 

Jayaram wins

Experienced shuttler Ajay Jayaram also produced a dominating performance to storm into the second round with a 21-14 21-12 win over Austria's Luka Wraber. The women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy defeated Indonesian-Malaysian combo of Ririn Amelia and Anna Ching Yik Cheong 21-15 21-13 to start on a bright note. —PTI