Olympic silver medallist P.V Sindhu staved off a stiff challenge from 2016 All England champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan to make a positive start to her campaign at the Singapore Open here today.
Sindhu, who had clinched her maiden India Open Super Series title earlier this month, 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 here.
The fifth seeded Indian will face Indonesian Fitriani Fitriani next.
Kidambi Srikanth, still finding his rhythm after a long injury lay-off, registered an easy 21-12, 21-11 win over Japan's Kenta Nishimoto to progress to the pre-quarterfinals.
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 tomorrow.
New pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N.Sikki Reddy also showed 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. Ajay Jayaram too had a disappointing loss to China's
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.
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