Australia open: Sindhu breaks jinx, Manjunath wows

PTI

Sydney, August 2

Unheralded Indian Mithun Manjunath stunned fourth seed and world No. 7 Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in the opening round while PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth secured straight-game wins at the Australia Open Super 500 here today.

Manjunath, ranked 50th in the world, beat Loh 21-19 21-19 in a men’s singles first-round match that lasted 41 minutes.

However, Lakshya Sen conceded his match against compatriot Kiran George due to an injury. Sen was trailing 0-5 in the opening game when he decided to quit.

World No. 19 Srikanth defeated Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto 21-18 21-7, while sixth seed HS Prannoy had to dig deep to beat Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong 21-18 16-21 21-15.

Rising shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat also tasted success as he beat Australia’s Nathan Tang 21-12 21-16.

In the women’s singles, fifth seed Sindhu, who has lost in the first round at seven different tour events this season and is playing under a new personal coach in Malaysia’s Muhammad Hafiz Hashim, defeated compatriot Ashmita Chaliha 21-18 21-13 in 36 minutes.

Aakarshi Kashyap beat Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei 21-15 21-17, but it was curtains for Malvika Bansod as she lost 20-22 11-21 to Pai Yu Po of Chinese Taipei.

Only one Indian will survive after the second round in the women’s singles as Sindhu and Kashyap are pitted against each other.

The Indian mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy made a first-round exit after losing 14-21 18-21 to world No. 5 and third-seeded South Korean pair of Seo Seung Jae and Chae Yu Jung.

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