Japan Open: Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu, Saina, Srikanth, Prannoy, Sameer stormed into 2nd round

Tokyo, September 21: Olympic silver medalist PV Sindhu who recently won Korea Open title and others including Saina Nehwal, K. Srikanth, H S Prannoy and Sameer Verma on Wednesday stormed into the pre-quarter round of Japan Open Superseries Badminton which is being held in Tokyo.

 

Sindhu keeping up her good performance outclassed Japan's Minatsu Mitani by 12-21, 21-15, 21-17 in the opening round. Notably, Sindhu dished out Japan's Minatsu Mitani for the second time in as many weeks to reach the second round of the women's singles of Japan Open. Meanwhile, Saina Nehwal defeated Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong by 21-17 21-9 in the women's singles opening round in a match that lasted for 39 minutes.

On the other side, in the Men's Singles, another star Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth gave a sensational performance to overcome China's Tian Houwei by 21-15, 12-21, 21-11. However, Srikanth also improved his 1-6 record against the World No. 10 Tian Houwei. US Open Grand Prix Gold Champion Prannoy defeated Denmark's Anders Antonsen 21-12 21-14, while Sameer humbled Thailand's Khosit Phetpradab 21-12 21-19 in another Men's Singles match.

However, Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth and Sameer's elder brother, Sourabh, had to bow out of the tournament after first round losses. Indian doubles player Satwiksairaj Rankireddy also advanced to the mixed doubles second round along with Ashwini Ponnappa after defeating Thai pair of Tinn Isriyanet and Pacharapun Chochuwong 21-17 21-13.

However, Satwik and his men's doubles partner Chirag Shetty bowed out in the first round of the tournament. Men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy and women's doubles pair Ashwini and N Sikki Reddy also crashed out in their respective events.