Srikanth, Sameer progress, Sourabh bows out
Gwangju (South Korea), Nov 20
India made a promising start at the Korea Masters badminton tournament with Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma advancing to the second round of the men’s singles competition here today.
Sixth seed Srikanth defeated Hong Kong’s Wong Wing Ki Vincent 21-18 21-17 in match that lasted 37 minutes. The former world No.1 Srikanth now enjoys a 11-3 head-to-head record against Wong. He will face Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan in the second round.
Sameer Verma also reached the second round after his opponent Japan’s Kazumasa Sakai retired midway with the score reading 11-8 in favour of the Indian.
However, it was the end of the road for Sourabh Verma, who went down to local favourite Kim Donghun 21-13 12-21 13-21. Donghun will face Sameer in the second round.
Sindhu’s recent lean run down to hectic scheduling: Gopichand
Kolkata: India’s chief badminton coach Pullela Gopichand today attributed PV Sindhu’s lean run since her World Championships triumph to hectic scheduling.
Sindhu has fallen in the early stages at all tournaments except the French Open since winning her maiden World Championships title in August.
“Sindhu has had a tough time in the last few matches, but I am sure she’ll bounce back. I think she’s had a tough schedule after the World Championships,” Gopichand said. “Doing intercontinental with matches from China, South Korea. Then she went to Denmark, France and then she comes back to play in China, Hong Kong again… So I think it’s been a tough last two months for her,” he added.
Gopichand, however, said Sindhu would bounce back strongly. “A lot of players in the world are finding it difficult and we’ve had many players not doing the best in these tournaments because of the schedule. I think she is somebody who’s a contender any day and I am sure she’ll bounce back,” he said.
Gopichand and Sindhu are among the galaxy of sports stars who will be felicitated on the sidelines of the India-Bangladesh pink-ball Test beginning here on Friday.
