Fuzhou: World Champion P V Sindhu suffered a shock defeat to lower-ranked Pai Yu Po of Chinese Taipei in the opening round to be ousted but India’s doubles campaign was off to a good start in the USD 700,000 China Open here on Tuesday.
World No.6 Sindhu, who made early exits in China, Korea and Denmark, lost 13-21 21-18 19-21 to world No.42 Pai in a 74-minute women’s singles match here. However, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy gave the Indian camp reason to be cheerful with twin victories in the men’s and mixed doubles categories. Thailand Open champions Satwik and Chirag Shetty, who had reached the French Open finals last month, defeated the American pair of Phillip Chew and Ryan Chew 21-9 21-15 to set up a second-round meeting with sixth seeds Japanese Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe. Earlier, Satwik and Ashwini Ponnappa, ranked 30th, defeated Canada’s Joshua Hurlburt-Yu and Josephine Wu 21-19 21-19 to make a positive start in the mixed doubles competition.
They will face fifth-seeded Korean pair of Seo Seung Jae and Chae Yujung next. In men’s singles, HS Prannoy, who has recently recovered from dengue, faltered in the opening round, losing 17-21 18-21 to Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke. The women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy was blown away 9-21 8-21 by world No.10 Chinese pair of Li Wen Mei and Zheng Yu in 30 minutes. (PTI)
