Singapore:
India’s star badminton player and Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu faced tough challenge from 2016 All England champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan as she made a positive start to her campaign at the Singapore Open.
Sindhu, who had clinched her maiden India Open Super Series title earlier in April, fought back from a game down to eke out a 10-21 21-15 22-20 win in the opening round of a women’s singles match that lasted an hour and two minutes at Singapore.
The fifth seeded Indian will face Indonesian Fitriani Fitriani next. Runners-up at Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in January, B Sai Praneeth also dished out a gritty performance to prevail 17-21 21-7 21-19 over Denmark’s Emil Holst. The Indian will clash with China’s Qiao Bin on Thursday.
New pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy alsoshowed their prowess in a fighting 21-19 21-19 win over Malaysian combo of Yin Loo Lim and Yap Cheng Wen in women’s doubles competition.
However, it was curtains for Verma brothers—Sourabh and Sameer—as well as for Rituparna Das in singles events. While National Champion Sourabh failed to match Indonesia’s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting and lost 15-21 14-21 in just 39 minutes, Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold champion Sameer battled hard before going down 26-28 21-23 to Hong Kong’s Hu Yun.
Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Ya Ching ended Rituparna’s campaign, handing her a 18-21 13-21 defeat in 58 minutes. Mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankirteddy and Maneesha K, however, lost 13-21 21-16 11-21 to Lu Ching Yao and Chiang Kai Hsin of Chinese Taipei, while men’s doubles combo of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy suffered a 8-21 16-21 defeat to Japanese combo of Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda.
