Sindhu, Prannoy advance as India witness good day in China

Ace women’s singles shuttler PV Sindhu entered the second round, while her male compatriot HS Prannoy, eased into the third round of their respective events as India witnessed a productive day at the China Masters Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here on Wednesday.

Fourth seed Sindhu took 34 minutes to get the better of her Japanese rival Natsuki Nidaira 21-16 21-12 to book her place in the next round.

In the men’s singles event, Swiss Open winner Prannoy, seeded seventh, had little trouble in thwarting off the challenge of Huang Yuxiang of China 21-13 21-11.

Prannoy will face Malaysia’s Darren Liew in the next round.

It was a good day for India in the doubles competition as well as Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa and Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar also progressed to the second round of their respective events without much trouble.

While Pranaav and Akshay beat Singapore’s Yong Kai Terry Hee and Kean Hean Loh 21-18 21-13 in their men’s doubles opening match, Jwala and Ashwini defeated Malaysia’s Mei Kuan Chow and Meng Yean Lee 21-16 21-18 in the women’s doubles event.

Pranaav and Akshay will now meet seventh seeded Chinese pair of Wang Yilyu and Zhang Wen, while Jwala and Ashwini will be up against Chinese Taipei pair of Hsieh Pei Chen and Wu Ti Jung.

The only blot for India in an otherwise good day was eighth seeded men’s doubles combination of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, who lost 19-21 16-21 to Dutch pair of Ruud Bosch and Oliver Leydon-Davis in the opening round.

Top Indian male shuttler K Srikanth had suffered yet another first round exit after losing to Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu Hsien 21-12 21-17.