Star Indian shuttler PV Sindhu made a strong statement at the Singapore Open on Tuesday, advancing to the second round of the women’s singles competition.
PV Sindhu progresses to Singapore Open's 2nd round
The 30-year-old two-time Olympic medalist put on a composed and tactical performance to upset Indonesia's fifth-seeded Putri Kusuma Wardani. Sindhu outwitted the World No. 6 in straight games, 21-17, 21-18, at the prestigious USD 1,000,000 Super 750 tournament to set up a second-round clash against Japan’s Riko Gunji.
Satwiksairaj-Chirag's hard-fought win in 1st round
Joining her in the next round are Asian Games gold medalists Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who survived a grueling opening test in the men's doubles category. The World No. 4 Indian pair showed immense resilience to battle past the Malaysian-American duo of Chen Zhi Yi and Presley Smith, bouncing back from a tight first-game loss to win 26-28, 21-15, 21-13. They will face either Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan of Chinese Taipei or China's Liu Yang and Huang Di in their next match.
Ayush Shetty knocked out
It was a tough day on the court for India’s younger singles contingent, however. Rising star Ayush Shetty, a recent finalist at the Asia Championships, bowed out of the tournament after a valiant 65-minute battle against World Championships bronze medalist Viktor Axelsen, ultimately falling 21-11, 14-21, 12-21. Meanwhile, prodigy Unnati Hooda, a winner of three Super 100 titles over the last four years, also suffered an early exit after being outplayed 14-21, 10-21 by Japan's eighth seed and former world junior champion, Tomoka Miyazaki.
The opening day also brought disappointment across the doubles draws for the remaining Indian pairings. In women’s doubles, Kavipriya Selvam and Simran Singhi fought hard but lost their momentum to drop a 48-minute encounter against Spain’s Paula Lopez and Lucia Rodriguez 21-18, 13-21, 5-21, while Ashwini Bhat K and Shikha Gautam fell in straight games to Chinese Taipei’s Chang Ching Hui and Yang Ching Tun.
Over in the men's doubles, Hariharan Amsakarunan and M. R. Arjun were eliminated by Japan's seventh-seeded duo of Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi. Rounding out the day's action, the mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde fought valiantly in their second game but eventually went down 18-21, 20-22 against Chinese Taipei’s Yang Po Han and Hu Ling Fang.