Singapore Open: Sindhu, Srikanth advance to second round

Star shuttlers P.V. Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth registered contrasting wins in their respective categories to enter the second round of the Singapore Open Superseries badminton tournament here on Wednesday.

The fifth seeded Sindhu, who was up against Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in her first round match in the women's singles category, lost the first game before staging a superb comeback to win 10-21, 21-15, 22-20 in 62 minutes.

Nozomi was off to a good start in the opening game, wining two consecutive points before the Indian equalised. 

The two opponents continued to fight neck and neck before the Japanese took six points on the trot to open up a commanding 17-10 lead and went on to take the first game.

The second game also saw an intense battle in the early stages. With the scores locked at 6-6, Sindhu racked up nine back to back points to lead 15-6.

Although Nozomi tried to stage a fightback, she could not prevent Sindhu from taking the game. 

The third game also saw a pitched battle. Although Sindhu won seven consecutive points to lead 16-8, Nozomi fought back to draw level at 20-20.

Sindhu however, took the next two points to seal the game and the match.

Srikanth on the other hand, had a much easier day in office as he beat Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in straight games in the opening round of the men's singles.

The Indian dominated proceedings from the start to register a comfortable 21-12, 21-11 win in 32 minutes.

Nishimoto gave a tough fight in the early stages of the first game before the Indian opened up a 7-4 lead and never looked back from there.

Srikanth enjoyed a superb start to the second game, taking a 6-0 lead early on and continued to hold the upper hand throughout.

Among other Indians in the fray, B. Sai Praneeth defeated Emil Holst of Denmark 17-21, 21-7, 21-9 in 64 minutes in the men's singles.

The women's singles pair of Ashwini Ponappa and Sikki Reddy also entered the second round with a 21-19, 21-19 win over the Malaysian duo of Yin Loo Yim and Yap Cheng Wen.

The rest of the Indians had to face disappointment however, as Ajay Jayaram, Sourabh Verma, Sameer Verma (men's singles), M.R. Arjun and Ramchandran Shlok (men's doubles), Sanjana Santhosh and Arathi Sunil (women's doubles) and Manu Attri, B. Sumeeth (men's doubles) crashed out of the first round.