Birthday girl Sindhu sails into Indonesia Open quarters
Jakarta, July 5: Olympic silver medallist P. V. Sindhu celebrated her 23rd birthday with a straightforward win over Japan’s Aya Ohori, while H.S. Prannoy eked out a three-game victory over Wang Tzu Wei of Chinese Taipei to enter the quarterfinals of the Indonesia Open here on Thursday.
World No. 3 Sindhu didn’t break much sweat as she defeated Ohori, ranked 17th, 21-17, 21-14 in a 36minute match. It was her fifth win over the Japanese in as many meetings.
Sindhu erased an early 0-3 deficit to surge to 10-8 and 16-12 lead and held on to her own despite a charge from Ohori.
In the second game, the Indian produced a more dominating display as she moved to a 10-3 advantage and consolidated it to grab a 17-8 lead.
Prannoy recovered from an opening game loss to outwit Wang 21-23, 21-15, 2113 in an entertaining men’s singles contest that lasted an hour here. He is likely to meet third seed and All England champion Shi Yuqi of China.
However, Olympic medallist Saina Nehwal couldn’t get past fifth seed Chen Yufei, losing 18-21, 15-21 to the world no. 5 Chinese in a 40-minute contest.
Swiss Open winner Sameer Verma also failed to put much of a fight against world no. 1 Viktor Axelsen, going down 15-21, 14-21 to the reigning world champion from Denmark.
Earlier, Prannoy made good recovery after world no. 17 Wang opened up a 1410 lead. The Indian narrowed the deficit to 13-14.
Wang again curved out a 17-14 advantage. Prannoy gained two more points at the net and clawed back at 19-19 but Wang went on to pocket the opening game.
Prannoy upped his game after the change of ends and moved to a 11-8 lead after Wang found the net. The Indian extended his lead to 17-12 with few swift returns before sealing the game at 21-13.