MANILA (PHILIPPINES), April 27: Olympic medallists PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal fought off strong challenge from their opponents before winning their respective opening matches, but it was curtains for Lakshya Sen and B Sai Praneeth in Badminton Asia Championships here on Wednesday.
Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu was made to toil by Chinese Taipei’s Pai Yu Po as the fourth seeded Indian came back from a game down to win 18-21 27-25 21-9 in a marathon women’s singles opening round match.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina also had to break her sweat to eke out a 21-15 17-21 21-13 win over Sim Yujin of South Korea.
Sindhu will next play Singapore’s Yue Yann Jaslyn Hooi – Saina will face China’s Zhi Yi Wang.
The other remaining Indian in the women’s singles, Malvika Bansod too squandered a game lead before going down 9-21 21-17 26-24 against Yeo Jia Min of Singapore in another hard-fought tie. It turned out to be a disappointing outing for world championships bronze medal winner Sen, who was stunned by the unseeded Li Shi Feng of China. The fifth seeded Indian lost 21-12 10-21 19-21 in his opening round men’s singles tie.
World No. 19 Sai Praneeth suffered a straight game 17-21 13-21 defeat against Jonatan Christie of Indonesia.
Seventh seeded Kidambi Srikanth, however, kept India’s flag flying in the men’s singles competition by progressing to the second round with a straight-game win over Tze Yong Ng of Malaysia.
Srikanth had earlier defeated his rival 22-20 21-15 to set up a clash against Chinese qualifier Weng Hong Yang in the second round. (PTI)
