Sindhu cracks Tunjung code

Jakarta, June 13

Star Indian shuttler PV Sindhu roared back to form, ousting home favourite Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in straight games in the opening round of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 here today.

Sindhu, who made first-round exits from the last two events, took 38 minutes to prevail over the Indonesian in a 21-19 21-15 victory and seal a pre-quarterfinals berth.

This was also Sindhu’s first win against Tunjung after two consecutive defetas to the Indonesian in the Spain Masters final and Malaysia Masters semifinals in the recent months.

Sindhu, who has slipped to world No. 13 in the rankings, overcame a stiff challenge in the first game when the local challenger led 9-7 with a crosscourt drop.

Using her height to full advantage, Sindhu snatched the lead at 11-10 following three consecutive errors by Tunjung and sealed the first game.

After an edgy start, Sindhu was in full flow in the second game, forcing Tunjung to commit a lot of errors as the Indian finally managed to end her string of losses and extended

her overall head-to-head record to 8-2.

Sindhu now faces an even tougher battle as she is up against third seed Tai Tzu Ying in the pre-quarters.

The Taiwanese star is on an eight-match winning streak against the Indian and leads 18-5 in their head-to-head record.

It was a winning start for the in-form shuttler HS Prannoy too as he prevailed over Kenta Nishimoto of Japan 21-16 21-14 in 50 minutes.

The seventh-seeded Indian, who claimed the Malaysia Masters title last month, next faces NG Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong in the Round of 16.

The Indian women’s doubles duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand crashed out in the opening round following their loss to Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi of Japan. The CWG bronze medallist duo squandered their lead in the opening game to go down 22-20 12-21 16-21 in a one hour and 12 minutes.

World No. 5 men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also advanced to the last-16 stage. The Indians were leading 21-12 and 11-7 when their French opponents Christo Popov and Toma Junior Popov had to retire hurt following an injury to Christo.