Seoul: PV Sindhu and Parupalli Kashyap entered the second round, but it was the end of the road for HS Prannoy, the men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa – in both the doubles and mixed doubles at the Korea Open Super Series badminton championships here Wednesday.
Among others B Sai Praneeth, Sameer Verma and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also advanced to the second round. However, Sourabh Verma lost his first round clash to Japanese Kenta Nishimoto 21-18, 13-21, 19-21 in an hour and three minutes.
Sindhu opened her campaign by beating Hong Kong’s Cheung Ngan Yi 21-13, 21-8 a match that lasted 34 minutes. Sindhu dominated proceedings right from the start in both the games. She opened up a 7-1 lead in the first game and at one stage led 20-9 before allowing some easy points to her opponents.
In the second game, Sindhu again built up a lead of 8-2 with some telling smashes before closing the game without much fuss. She will next face Thai Nitchaon Jindapol in the second round.
Kashyap defeated Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Jen Hao 21-13, 21-16 in 35 minutes. This was the Indian’s fourth win over his rival in five meetings. Kashyap will next face South Korean top seed Son Wan Ho. Meanwhile Sameer created a flutter by stunning eighth-seeded Thai player Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk 21-13, 21-23, 21-9 in 54 minutes.
In other men’s singles matches Praneeth defeated Chinese Hu Yun 21-15, 21-10 while Prannoy went down 17-21, 23-21, 14-21 to sixth seed NG Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong.
The duo of Satwik-Chirag got past Chinese Taipei’s Lee Sheng Mu and Lin Chia Yu 21-9, 22-24, 21-12 in 51 minutes and will next face Chinese Taipei’s seventh seeds Lee Jhe-Huei and Lee Yang on Thursday.
Satwik, however, suffered a loss in the mixed doubles category. He and Ashwini lost to Hong Kong’s Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet 18-21, 19-21.
In women’s doubles, Ashwini and N Sikki Reddy bowed out in the first round with a 21-19, 13-21, 17-21 loss to Malaysians Fie Cho Soong and Jing Yi Tee. The match lasted 52 minutes. In the decider, the Indians had a 10-7 lead but failed to capitalise on it.
In a late evening men’s doubles match Manu-Sumeeth lost to South Koreans Chung Eui Seok and Kim Duk Young 11-21, 10-21 in 25 minutes.
