Indonesia Open: Sindhu, Srikanth, Praneeth advance to second round

After a slow start, Sindhu, the reigning world champion, engineered a turnaround to register a hard-fought 17-21, 21-17, 21-17 win over Japan's Aya Ohori in one hour 10 minutes to advance to the pre-quarterfinals.

FILE PHOTO: India's double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu showed great determination to outwit a tenacious Aya Ohori in the opening round of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 event in Bali on Wednesday.

India's double Olympic medallist P. V. Sindhu showed great determination to outwit her opponent in the women's singles opening round, while B. Sai Praneeth and Kidmabi Srikanth also advanced to the men's singles second round of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 event here on Wednesday.

After a slow start, Sindhu, the reigning world champion, engineered a turnaround to register a hard-fought 17-21, 21-17, 21-17 win over a tenacious Aya Ohori of Japan in one hour 10 minutes. With the win, Sindhu improved her impressive record against the Japanese shuttler to 11-0.

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World number seven Sindhu, who made a semifinal exit after suffering a straight game defeat to Japan's Akane Yamaguchi here last week, will meet 23-year-old German shuttler Yvonne Li in the second round. It will be the first meeting between the third seed Indian and world number 26 Li.

In the men's singles, world number 16 Sai Praneeth clinched a 21-19, 21-18 win over France's Toma Junior Popov.

In a repeat of last week's Indonesia Masters quarterfinal, Srikanth once again got the better of compatriot HS Prannoy. The former world number one Srikanth, who is coming off two back-to-back semifinal finishes at Hylo Open and Indonesia Masters, continued his good run of form as he eked out a 21-15, 19-21, 21-12 victory over Prannoy in 56 minutes.

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While Praneeth will next take on Christo Popov of France in the second round, Srikanth will meet the winner of the first round clash between Tokyo Olympics gold medallist second seed Dane Victor Axelsen and Japan's Koki Watanbe.

The mixed doubles pairing of N. Sikki Reddy and Dhruv Kapila, however, made a first round exit, falling to the Japanese duo of Kyohei Yamashita and Naru Shinoya, 7-21 12-21. It was a bad day in the office for Reddy who made a first round exit in the women's doubles event as well. Reddy and veteran shuttler Ashwini Ponnappa went down 27-29 18-21 to the fifth seeded Bulgarian duo of Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva.