PV Sindhu progress into pre-quarters of China Open; Saina knocked out

Olympic and World Championship silver-medallist PV Sindhu advanced into the pre-quarterfinals, but it was curtains for Saina Nehwal, who suffered an opening-round defeat in the women’s singles of the USD one million China Open World Tour Super 1000 tournament in Changzhou on Tuesday.

World No.3 Sindhu faced little difficulties in beating the 39^th ranked Saena Kawakami of Japan 21-15, 21-13 in the first round. Saina, however, went down despite putting up a tough fight. She lost 20-22, 21-8, 21-14 against South Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun to crash out of the tournament.

Saena started well against the superior Sindhu not letting the Indian build up a big lead advantage. But it was only a matter of time before Sindhu broke loose to grab a 13-7 lead. With the Japanese not providing much resistance after the break, Sindhu had little trouble in pocketing the first game.

Sindhu started with the same pace in the second game and surged to a 6-0 lead before the Japanese Saena bounced back with a flurry of net shots to decrease the deficit to just two points standing at 8-10. Asian Games silver medallist Sindhu, however, held on and went into the breather with the same two-point slender lead.

But once again, after the break, Saena lost the plot as Sindhu raced to 15-11. She grabbed eight points from that stage, with her opponent managing just two in between and from 20-12, Saena took one more point but Sindhu smashed the next to seal the victory.

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