Press Trust of India
Wuhan, April 27: Olympic-bound Indian shuttlers, Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu won their respective women’s singles matches to make a resounding start to their campaign at the Badminton Asia Championships, here Wednesday. However, out of form Kidambi Srikanth was once more stunned by a qualifier in the first round.
Fifth seed Saina disposed Indonesia’s Fitriani Fitriani 21-16, 21-17, while Sindhu brushed aside another Indonesian Febe Kusumastuti 21-10, 21-13. Both matches lasted exactly 30 minutes.
“So far so good,” said Saina after her match. “I am satisfied at the way I played and could control the pace of the rallies.”
However, it was a bad day at office for other Indians in the fray here. Eighth-seeded Srikanth conceded a one-game advantage to go down 21-13, 12-21, 19-21 to his Korean rival Lee Dong Keun.
In the women’s doubles the Korean pair of Chang Ye Na and Lee So Hee defeated Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa 21-15, 21-11 while the men’s doubles combo of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy suffered a 15-21, 13-21 loss to fifth seeded Japanese pair of Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa.
Another men’s doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar also faced defeat, losing 19-21, 17-21 to Or Chin Chung and Tang Chun Man of Hong Kong.
