After guiding the women’s badminton team to a historic bronze two days ago, India’s top shuttlers Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu opened their campaign in the Asian Games individual competitions with thumping victories in the singles event on Wednesday.
Sixth seed Saina easily overcame U Teng Lok of Macau 21-10, 21-8 in just 20 minutes and lined up against her next opponent Iran’s Soraya Aghaeihajiagha, who dispatched Mongolia’s Khulangoo Baatar in straight games in another round of 32 women’s singles encounter.
Sindhu, seeded 8th, too had a comfortable 21-7, 21-13 first round victory in 19 minutes over Wong Kit Leng, also of Macau, to book a round of 16 clash against M Bellaetrix of Indonesia, a contest the lanky Hyderabadi described as ‘tricky’.
‘It should be a tricky match but I am confident of doing well,’ said the world No. 10, who did not want to look too far ahead to an expected clash with the top-seeded London Olympic champion Li Xuerei, who is also currently the world no. 1.‘I am taking it match by match and not looking too far ahead,’ she added.
Saina said her easy first round victory was expected but things would hot up from round three. ‘The first two rounds are generally easy but things would get tougher after that,’ said the world no. 7. If Saina sails through to the quarter finals on Thursday, she is likely to face second seed Yan Wihan of China against whom she has a poor 1-8 win-loss ratio.
‘Yan Wihan is a very tough player. My record against her is not great as everyone knows. She is a very powerful player and plays deep in the court. Her smashes are steep. I have been working hard over the last 2-3 weeks (under Vimal Kumar in Bangalore) on my (on-court) movement. Hopefully things would go as per plans,’ she said.
Two out of three Indian doubles combinations made their exit from the tournament, with only Manu Attri and S Sumeeth Reddy standing to fight another day. Attri and Reddy got past the lukewarm challenge put up by Maldivian pair Sarim Mohammed and N Sharafuddeen to win 2-17, 2-17 in 19 minutes but are up against Chinese sixth seeds Liu Xiaolong and Qui Zihan on Thursday for a place in the quarter finals.
The more fancied men’s doubles combine of Pranav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar bit the dust, so too did the women’s pair of N Sikki Reddy and Pradnya Gadre after putting up a fight against their Japanese rivals.
Chopra and Dewalkar lost 8-21, 15-21 in 28 minutes to China’s Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng in round of 32, while Pradnya and Sikki stretched Japan’s no. 2 seeds Miyuki Maeda Reika Kakiiwa. The Indian women’s duo lost the opening game 16-21, raised visions of an upset win by clinching the second game 21-19 but then committed far too many unforced errors to drop the third 14-21 and made the exit. The Indian pair lost six points in a row after leading 3-0 to trail 3-6, caught up their rivals at 7 but fell behind again to 10-14 after which their rivals never looked back as Pradnya and Sikki lapsed into errors.
The world number 55 Indian combination earlier had beaten their lower-ranked rivals Sichhya Shrestha and Punam Gurung of Nepal 21-16, 21-4 in just 16 minutes.
Sixth seed Saina easily overcame U Teng Lok of Macau 21-10, 21-8 in just 20 minutes and lined up against her next opponent Iran’s Soraya Aghaeihajiagha, who dispatched Mongolia’s Khulangoo Baatar in straight games in another round of 32 women’s singles encounter.
Sindhu, seeded 8th, too had a comfortable 21-7, 21-13 first round victory in 19 minutes over Wong Kit Leng, also of Macau, to book a round of 16 clash against M Bellaetrix of Indonesia, a contest the lanky Hyderabadi described as ‘tricky’.
‘It should be a tricky match but I am confident of doing well,’ said the world No. 10, who did not want to look too far ahead to an expected clash with the top-seeded London Olympic champion Li Xuerei, who is also currently the world no. 1.‘I am taking it match by match and not looking too far ahead,’ she added.
Saina said her easy first round victory was expected but things would hot up from round three. ‘The first two rounds are generally easy but things would get tougher after that,’ said the world no. 7. If Saina sails through to the quarter finals on Thursday, she is likely to face second seed Yan Wihan of China against whom she has a poor 1-8 win-loss ratio.
‘Yan Wihan is a very tough player. My record against her is not great as everyone knows. She is a very powerful player and plays deep in the court. Her smashes are steep. I have been working hard over the last 2-3 weeks (under Vimal Kumar in Bangalore) on my (on-court) movement. Hopefully things would go as per plans,’ she said.
Two out of three Indian doubles combinations made their exit from the tournament, with only Manu Attri and S Sumeeth Reddy standing to fight another day. Attri and Reddy got past the lukewarm challenge put up by Maldivian pair Sarim Mohammed and N Sharafuddeen to win 2-17, 2-17 in 19 minutes but are up against Chinese sixth seeds Liu Xiaolong and Qui Zihan on Thursday for a place in the quarter finals.
The more fancied men’s doubles combine of Pranav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar bit the dust, so too did the women’s pair of N Sikki Reddy and Pradnya Gadre after putting up a fight against their Japanese rivals.
Chopra and Dewalkar lost 8-21, 15-21 in 28 minutes to China’s Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng in round of 32, while Pradnya and Sikki stretched Japan’s no. 2 seeds Miyuki Maeda Reika Kakiiwa. The Indian women’s duo lost the opening game 16-21, raised visions of an upset win by clinching the second game 21-19 but then committed far too many unforced errors to drop the third 14-21 and made the exit. The Indian pair lost six points in a row after leading 3-0 to trail 3-6, caught up their rivals at 7 but fell behind again to 10-14 after which their rivals never looked back as Pradnya and Sikki lapsed into errors.
The world number 55 Indian combination earlier had beaten their lower-ranked rivals Sichhya Shrestha and Punam Gurung of Nepal 21-16, 21-4 in just 16 minutes.