Srikanth, Sameer sail through World Championship opener

GLASGOW: India made a promising start at the World Championship with in-form shuttler Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma advancing to the second round of the men’s singles competition here on Monday.

Srikanth, seeded eighth, who won the Indonesia Super series premier and Australian Super series Open in June, defeated Russia’s Sergey Sirant 21-13 21-12 in less than half an hour match to set up a clash with France’s Lucas Corvee in the next round on Tuesday.Sameer Verma, who won the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in January, also reached the second round after his opponent Spain’s Pablo Abian retired midway with the score reading 21-8 17-4 in favour of the Indian.

He will meet either England’s Rajiv Ouseph or Czech Adam Mendrek in the next round.

Young mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Maneesha K defeated Hong Kong pair of Tam Chun Hei and Ng Tsz Yau 24-22 21-17 to also start their campaign on a positive note.

The Indo-Malaysian pair of Prajakta Sawant and Yogendran Khrishnan saw off Chinese Taipei’s Lu Ching Yao and Chiang Kai Hsin 21-15 13-21 21-18 in another mixed doubles match on Monday.

In the men’s singles, it was a nervy start for Srikanth as he missed few points but his smart play at the net and some precise smashes helped the Indian to enter the break at 11-6.

After the interval, the Indian kept increasing the distance, reaching 15-7 and eventually sealed the opening game with ease. In the second game, Srikanth once again zoomed ahead to 11-5 after an initial duel. The duo engaged in some exciting rallies but the Indian was always ahead in the game. P V Sindhu will open her campaign on Tuesday, having got a bye in the first round.

‘WILL FIGHT TO CHANGE COLOUR OF MEDAL’ Spearheading India’s challenge at the World Championships, Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu says she is in good form and vowed to better the colour of her past two bronze medals.

“I think it has been two months since Australia Open, so I got enough time to practice. Form wise, I am perfectly all right, so I hope I give my best and do well,” Sindhu told reporters here.

“I am definitely looking for a medal here and hopefully, better one the bronze this time, I also want to change the colour, so will fight for that,” added the 22-yearold from Hyderabad.