India had a bitter-sweet day at the USD 100,000 Indonesian Open Super Series tournament today. While the women’s doubles and men’s doubles teams crashed out, the men’s singles also provided mixed fortunes with wins for Kidambi Srikanth and H.S Prannoy and a loss for Sai Praneeth.
India’s title hopes now rest primarily on the shoulders of Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu and K. Srikanth, while HS Prannoy will be one of the underdogs.
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Mixed fortunes in Men’s Singles
The world no.14 started out strongly in this tournament with a win over Hong Kong’s Wong Wing Ki Vincent. Srikanth won the first game 21-15 but fell behind in the second game, losing out 14-21. The third game was very competitive as well with the score 14-14 at one point.
However, the Indian kept his composure and won the game 21-16 and along with it the match.
Sai Praneeth was drawn against the World No.2 Son Wan Ho of South Korea in the first round. The Indian fought valiantly but was knocked out by the Korean 21-14, 21-18 in a match that lasted 40 minutes.
Prannoy H. S. beat Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia in a one-sided affair, which the young Indian dominated and raced to a 21-13, 21-18 victory. The world No.12 had a good start winning his first match with ease and this result would give him the confidence to go further in the tournament.
The 2016 Swiss Open winner will now face World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia in the next round which will surely be his toughest challenge yet.
Doubles teams knocked out of the tournament
Ashwini Ponnappa and Reddy N. Sikki were defeated by Dian Fitriani and Nadya Melati from Indonesia to crash out of the tournament. It was a disappointing tournament for the experienced Ponnappa as she had lost her mixed doubles match yesterday with partner Reddy B. Sumeeth as well.
The 2017 Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold runners-up made a bright start to the match and won the first game after a tight contest, following which the Indonesian team took control. The second game turned out to be yet another close encounter which went against the Indian duo.
The deciding game proved to be a disappointing one, in which they were completely outplayed by the Indonesian team. Fitriani and Melati won the match with the final result 19-21, 21-19, 21-13 in a match that lasted 1 hour and 2 minutes.
The Indian men’s doubles team had previously done well in the tournament and had won both their qualification matches to make their way into the round one of the tournament. The duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost out against Indonesian Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto.
They started slowly and lost game one 9-21. However, they put up a spirited display in the second game but failed to capitalise on chances and lost the game 19-21 and the match with it.
