Three shuttlers in round two, Kashyap, Verma beaten
Kowloon: Shuttlers Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy made positive starts to their campaign, advancing to the second round of USD 4,00,000 Hong Kong Super Series badminton tournament here Wednesday.
Saina staved off a spirited challenge from World No.44 Mette Poulsen of Denmark before emerging a winner with a 21-19, 23-21 in a 46-minute match. She will next meet eighth seed Chinese Chen Yufei.
Sindhu, seeded second, disposed of Hong Kong’s Leung Yuet Yee 21-18, 21-10 to set up a clash with either Japan’s Aya Ohori or Russia’s Evgeniya Kosetskaya in the next round. After a close first game, Sindhu was a runaway winner in the second toying with her opponent while hitting deceptive lobs and steep smashes.
In men’s singles, Prannoy survived a scare against Hong Kong’s Hu Yun to win 19-21, 21-17, 21-15 in a match that lasted a little over an hour. He will next meet Japan’s Kazumasa Sakai, the person to whom he had lost in the semifinals of the Indonesia Open Super Series Premier.
However, Parupalli Kashyap squandered an opening game advantage to go down narrowly 21-15, 9-21, 20-22 to Korean Lee Dong Keun, while Sourabh Verma failed to put up a fight against Indonesia’s Tommy Sugiarto, losing 15-21, 8-21 to bow out of the competition.
In women’s doubles Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy played their hearts out before going down 11-21, 21-19, 19-21 against the Chinese combo of Huang Dongping and Li Wenmei in a match that lasted more than an hour. Prannoy lagged behind for most part of the opening game even though he did manage to turn the tables a few times, taking slender leads at 9-8, 13-12 and 16-15. But Hu Yun managed to keep his nose ahead to pocket the first game.
The Indian, however, produced a better performance in the second as he fought back from 0-5 down to lead 11-8 at the break and then surged ahead, despite some tough fight from the local hero.
In the decider, Hu Yun once again jumped to a 5-0 lead but Prannoy narrowed the deficit to 10-11 at the break. Hu managed to grab a 14-12 advantage but the Indian reeled off eight straight points to move to the match point. Hu saved one before Prannoy sealed it without much ado.
