Sindhu enters Singapore Open 2nd round
Rio Olympic Games silver medallist PV Sindhu staved off a stiff challenge from 2016 All England champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan to make a positive start to her campaign at the Singapore Open here on Wednesday.
Sindhu, who had clinched her maiden India Open Super Series title earlier this month, fought back from a game down to eke out a 10-21, 21-15, 22-20 win in the opening round of a women’s singles match that lasted an hour and two minutes here.
The fifth-seeded Indian will face Indonesian Fitriani Fitriani next. Runners-up at Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in January, B Sai Praneeth also dished out a gritty performance to prevail 17-21, 21-7, 21-19 over Denmark’s Emil Holst.
The Indian will clash with China’s Qiao Bin on Thursday.
New pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also showed their prowess in a fighting 21-19, 21-19 win over the Malaysian combination of Yin Loo Lim and Yap Cheng Wen in women’s doubles competition.
SSP Chawrasia, twotime winner of the Indian Open, has renewed his association with Delhi coach Sandeep Verma. This happened because the arrangement with Anirban Lahiri’s coach Vijay Divecha didn’t work out due to time constraints.
“Our schedules didn’t match,” said Chawrasia, after the annual awards programme of the Calcutta Sports Journalists’ Club where he got the sports person of the year award here on Tuesday.
Chawrasia leaves for back to back tournaments in Japan and China on Saturday. He will then be back for a couple of days before leaving again for London where he will team up with S Chikkarangappa.