Kidambi Srikanth claimed an impressive 21-11, 21-15 first round win against home favourite Vincent Wing Wong Ki in the Hong Kong Open World Tour Super 500 tournament here on Wednesday.
Olympic silver medallist P. V. Sindhu and Sameer Verma notched up contrasting wins.
Sindhu, seeded third, continued her consistent run as she recovered from a mid-game slump to surpass Thailand’s Nitchaon Jindapol 21-15, 13-21, 21-17 in the opening round which lasted a little over an hour.
It was Sindhu’s fourth win over the Thai player.
Sindhu, who won three major silver medals this season — Commonwealth Games, World Championship and Asian Games — will take on Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun next.
The 23-year-old from Hyderabad has a superior 8-5 head-to-head record against the Korean.
Saina Nehwal, however, lost her opening match against World No. 2 Akane Yamaguchi 21-10, 10-21, 19-21.
In the men’s singles, Sameer, who clinched the Swiss Open and Hyderabad Open this year, saw off another Thai Suppanyu Avihingsanon 21-17, 21-14 to set up a clash with China’s Olympic champion Chen Long.
However, former Singapore Open champion B. Sai Praneeth was stunned by Khosit Phetpradab of Thailand in a 62-minute opener.
Praneeth had a 3-0 record against Khosit ahead of the match but it didn’t matter as he went down fighting 21-16, 11-21, 15-21 to bow out of the tournament.
Parupalli Kashyap went down 16-21, 13-21 in his match against Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.
H. S. Prannoy, the last Indian in action for the day, took a little over an hour to defeat Denmark's Anders Antonsen 21-14, 13,21, 21-19.
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