China Open 2018: PV Sindhu moves into second round, doubles teams falter

PV Sindhu has reached the second round of the Super Level 750 Fuzhou China Open being played at the Haixia Olympic Center. It was a dominant performance by the two-time World Championship silver medalist as she signaled her intention to make a serious challenge for the title.

Sindhu defeated Russia’s Evgeniya Kosetskaya in two straight games 21-13, 21-19 to surge ahead in the tournament.

The first game began with both players earning alternate points till 3-3. Kosetskaya then started playing some aggressive badminton to take a 7-5 lead. But Sindhu came back strongly to take a bunch of points in succession.

At the interval, the Indian led 11-7. When play resumed, Sindhu continued her aggressive approach game and won the first game 21-13.

The second was much closer, with the Russian forcing Sindhu into a few errors. But the Indian maintained her composure long enough to earn a slender lead of 11-10.

After the interval, Sindhu extended her lead to 15-12 before the Russian came storming back to level the score at 15-15. Both players fought for each point till 19-19, and it was anybody's game at that point.

But Sindhu held her nerve admirably to eke out the game 21-19, and with it the match.

In the second round, PV Sindhu will take on Thailand's Busanan Ongbamrungphan.

Doubles teams lose in first round

The men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy lost to Denmark's Kim Astrup and AS Rasmussen in straight sets. The Denmark pair won the first game comfortably 21-16, but it was a neck to neck fight in the second. Eventually, Astrup and Rasmussen prevailed to win the second game 27-25.

Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy, meanwhile, lost to Japan's Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto in three games. The Japanese duo won the first game 21-19 after a closely fought battle, but the Indian pair came back strongly to win the second 21-15. Tanaka and Yonemoto showed their class to win the third game 21-17 to move into second round.