Singapore Open: PV Sindhu lays it on the Line for Marin
Singapore, May 29
Star shuttlers PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy progressed to the second round but Lakshya Sen went down fighting against world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen at the Singapore Open Super 750 here today.
Sindhu had last won a BWF title at Singapore two years back and she entered the tournament after signing off with a runner-up finish at the Thailand Open last week.
Up against world No. 21 Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark, the Indian registered a 21-12 22-20 win in a 44-minute opening-round encounter to set up a mouth-watering battle against Carolina Marin of Spain.
World No. 3 Marin has an overwhelming 11-5 record against the Indian. The last time the two clashed, it turned out to be an ill-tempered match at the Denmark Open.
World No. 10 Prannoy then quelled a tough challenge from world No. 45 Julien Carraggi of Belgium 21-9 18-21 21-9 to set up a meeting with Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand notched up a 21-7 21-14 win over Cheng Yu-Pei and Sun Yu Hsing of Chinese Taipei to make a good start in women’s doubles.
However, world No. 14 Lakshya, who will be making his Olympics debut at the Paris Games, fought hard but ran out of steam in the decider to go down 13-21 21-16 13-21 in 62 minutes against Axelsen.
Kidambi Srikanth’s opening-round match ended in agony as he retired due to a knee injury after lagging 14-21 3-11 against Japan’s fifth seed Kodai Naraoka.
In other results, Olympics-bound women’s duo of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 21-18 19-21 19-21 to Ukraine’s Polina Buhrova and Yevheniia Kantemyr. B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy lost 18-21 19-21 to Malaysia’s Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie in mixed doubles.
