Saina, Sindhu star as India make winning start at Asiad

Update: 2014-09-21 22:23 GMT
The entire tie lasted under one and a half hour as Indians outplayed their rivals with clinical precision.

Saina opened the proceedings for the team and hardly broke a sweat before thrashing Kit Ieng Wong 21-6, 21-4 in just 21 minutes. Sindhu was the next player in and she was also in rampaging form, beating Teng Iok U 21-8, 21-9. Sindhu, who won a bronze medal in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, took just 24 minutes to wrap the issue in her favour.

In the doubles match, N Sikki Reddy and Pradnya Gadre faced some stiff challenge from Zhibo Zhang and Rong Wang before prevailing 21-16, 21-17 in the 32-minute contest.

However, the men’s team was outplayed by the home side 0-3. K Srikanth and Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Parupalli Kashyap went down in contrasting fashions while the doubles team of Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri also failed to come good. Srikanth was the first to take the court and was hardly a match for Wanho Son, who breezed past him 21-14, 21-8 in 37 minutes.

The doubles match was next and here too, South Korea dominated and notched the match 21-12, 21-9 in 35 minutes to take a formidable lead.

In the crucial third match, Kashyap was up against former world number one Hyunil Lee. The Indian displayed fine form by taking the opening game 21-6 in 12 minutes but it was all downhill from there on. Lee bounced back remarkably to clinch the next two games 21-14, 21-10.

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