Tokyo: Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu registered a straight-game win over Malaysia’s Wong Ling Ching to progress to the women’s singles second round at the Japan Open Super 750 badminton tournament in Tokyo Tuesday.
World No. 10 Sindhu, a 2019 world champion, produced a compact performance to notch up a 21-14 21-11 win over Wong, ranked world No 37, in the opening round.
India’s Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto too advanced to the second round after defeating Scotland’s Alexander Dunn and Julie Macpherson 21-16, 21-14 in their mixed doubles opener.
However, Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde bowed out in the opening round after losing 11-21, 10-21 to top seeds Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping of China.
Sindhu vs Wong
Sindhu controlled the proceedings from the outset, dictating the pace of the rallies to open up a 7-4 lead. Although Wong attempted to stay in touch, her unforced errors allowed the Indian to steadily pull away and take an 11-6 advantage at the mid-game interval.
The Indian ace looked comfortable in the rallies, mixing up her strokes effectively to extend her lead to 14-9. Her backhand net dribbles, deft drops and well-disguised half-smashes came off with precision.
While there were a few stray errors, including a long toss and a wide cross-court net shot from the Indian, Wong failed to make the most of those opportunities.
A straight smash earned Sindhu seven game points, and she wrapped up the opening game at the second time of asking.
Sindhu resumed in similar fashion after the change of ends, racing to an 8-2 lead before opening up an 11-3 cushion at the interval.
The gap only widened thereafter as Wong continued to struggle with her accuracy, allowing Sindhu to surge to 16-5 lead. The Malaysian briefly strung together three points before another error handed the initiative back to the Indian.
A smash into the net from Wong gave Sindhu 10 match points. The Indian squandered the first with a long return before Wong found the net on the next point to hand Sindhu a comfortable straight-game victory.
Later in the day, third seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will take on Denmark’s Daniel Lundgaard and Mads Vestergaard in the men’s doubles opening round.
Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun will face Chinese Taipei’s Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan in another men’s doubles match.
