Indian ace Shutler PV Sindhu has stormed into the second round of the Syed Modi International 2022 by overcoming fellow Indian Tanya Hemanth. The star Indian is the top seed and is favourite to win the tournament at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium, Lucknow.
The top seed had no problems in dispatching Tanya 21-9, 21-9 to book her place in the next round. Domination from the word go, Sindhu relied on her aerial shots and showed a good defensive show, not giving her opponent any space. She made good use of the net shots to keep Tanya guessing as she pocketed the first game.
It wasn't a different story in the second game, as she laid the marker by some quick fire return winners. The match lasted less than an hour as Sindhu tries to get over her disappointing exit from the India Open.
Sindhu's dreams were dealt a heavy blow last week in the semi-finals of the India Open when she lost to Thailand's Supanida Katethong in a three-game thriller by 14-21, 21-13, 10-21. She hasn't won a big title on the BWF tour since winning the gold medal at the 2019 World Championship.
The former world no. 1 will now take on USA's Lauren Lam, who eliminated Ira Sharma of India by a scoreline of 15-21, 21-16, 21-16.
Other big advancements included Kanika Kanwal, who defeated Disha Gupta by 21-15, 16-21, 21-16. The tournament is already without star names like Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, Ashwini Ponnappa as they have opted out due to various reasons. Lakshya is missing due to workload and fatigue as he has been playing continuously since last October.
Lakshya had earlier made it the finals of the Dutch Open and reached the semi-finals of the Hylo Open. He also featured in the knockout stages of the BWF World Tour Finals and won bronze at the world championships during the last few months of 2021.
