Indonesia Open 2023: India's star shuttler PV Sindhu on Tuesday outclassed local favourite Gregoria Mariska Tunjung in her opening round of the Indonesia Open World Tour Super 1000 in Jakarta. After bowing down in the first rounds in her previous two editions, Sindhu made a return to form with straight-game wins over Tunjung. She won the contest 21-19, 21-15 in 38 minutes to set a round-of-16 clash with her Taiwanese nemesis.
Sindhu made a comeback into the game after trailing 7-9 in the opening game. She took full advantage of three errors from the Indonesian to lead 11-10, before eventually clinching the game 21-19. The 27-year-old then carried her flow in the second game, fending off her opponent 21-15.
This is Sindhu's first win over Tunjung in the last three attempts, having been on the losing end at the Madrid Masters final and Malaysian Masters semifinal earlier this year. Sindhu now holds an 8-2 record against her.
Moreover, she will now face her nemesis Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan. Tai Tzu is on an eight-match winning streak and has an overall 18-5 lead. Tai Tzu is the same player, who defeated Sindhu in the Tokyo Olympics semifinals.
Treesa-Gayatri crash out
Notably, the women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand crashed out of the tournament with an opening-round loss to Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi of Japan. The Indians squandered the first game lead to go down by 22-20 12-21 16-21 in a match that lasted 1 hour and 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, HS Prannoy too sailed through in his campaign with a thumping win in straight games over Kenta Nishimoto of Japan 21-16 21-14.
