Shenzhen (China), Sep 16: Star India shutter PV Sindhu overcame the first-round hurdle, defeating Julie Dawall Jakobsen of Denmark in straight games to advance to the women’s singles pre-quarterfinals of the China Masters Super 750 badminton tournament, here on Wednesday.
Young Ayush Shetty fought hard but lost the men’s singles opening-round match to sixth-seeded and world no.5 Chinese Taipei shuttler Chou Tien Chen 19-21, 21-12, 16-21 in 68 minutes, while the mixed doubles pair of Ruthvika Gadde and Rohan Kapoor too bowed out following a 17-21, 11-21 defeat to Yuichi Shimogami and Sayaka Hobara of Japan.
Sindhu, the two-time Olympic medallist, took just 27 minutes to decimate Jakobsen 21-4, 21-10. The win for the Indian comes less than 10 days after her opening-round loss in the Hong Kong Open Super 500 tournament where she had lost to another Dane Line Christophersen.
Sindhu, who has suffered six first-round exits on the BWF World Tour this year with the latest being the Hong Kong Open, was in her elements as the 30-year-old raced to a substantial lead in no time and finished the opening game in slightly over 10 minutes.
The trend continued in the second game as well with the Indian, who had beaten the Dane in two previous occasions as well, taking a three-point lead at 4-1 before Jakobsen made it 4-4.
Thereafter, Sindhu displayed her experience and superior technique to finish off her opponent’s challenge. She won six straight points to jump from 11-8 to 17-8, before closing out the contest.
The last time the two had met, in the opening round of the Yonex Swiss Open in March, Jakobsen had given a tough fight to Sindhu.
Young Shetty fought bravely but Chen won the decider with ease, making it a hat-trick of losses for the Indian against the Chinese Taipei shuttler this year.
Chen, who has beaten Shetty in the semifinals of the Taipei and US Open this year, kept fighting despite the Indian clawing back to take the second game.
After a tough fight, which saw both players tied at 13-13 in the deciding game, Chen upped his game several notches to open up a four-point lead at 17-13 and then went on to easily tame Shetty, who had lost to country-mate Lakshya Sen in the Hong Kong Open in the quarterfinals.
However, there was some consolation for the 20-year-old Shetty as he climbed to a career-best BWF ranking of 27 following his quarterfinal rub in Hong Kong where he also beat Japanese world no. 9 Kodai Naraoka on the way. (PTI)
