Sindhu in last 16 as Saina loses in Hong Kong Open
HONG KONG: PV Sindhu set her sights on reaching the word No 1 position after she shook off opening-match nerves to reach the last 16 at the Hong Kong Open. She beat Thailand’s Nitchaon Jindapol 21-15, 13-21, 21-17.
Afterwards Sindhu, who has become one of the world’s highest paid female athletes since winning Olympic silver in 2016, said she had her eye on the number one spot. “It’s not going to be easy because there are some players who are coming up. But definitely one day I will be world number one, that’s what I feel,” said Sindhu, who was briefly ranked second last month. “The top 10 to 15 players of the world are in the same standard, so it’s just on the day who plays well and gives their best is the number one.”
SAINA, KASHYAP OUT
Saina Nehwal’s Hong Kong Open campaign came to an end in the first round after she was beaten by Japanese Akane Yamaguchi 10-21, 21-10, 21-19. Later in the day, Kidambi Srikanth beat Hong Kong’s Wong Wing Ki Vincent 21-11, 21-15 to advance to the second round but Parupalli Kashyap was knocked out by Indonesia’s Anthony Ginting 21-16, 21-13. HS Prannoy, however, beat DaneAnders Antonsen 21-14, 13-21, 21-19.
In men’s doubles, Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy beat Thailand’s Bodin Isara and Maneepong Jongjit 21-12, 21-18 but Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lost 21-19, 23-21 to Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen.
‘LITTLE TIME TO RECTIFY MISTAKES’
MUMBAI: Chief national coach Pullela Gopichand said while it might not have been a great season for Indians, he was happy with the performances given there were a number of big events. “It has been a tough year. We hardly had time for preparations. We had the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, world championships. Whatever time we had was not enough to really work end-to-end on mistakes,” Gopichand said on the sidelines of the launch ceremony of Mumbai Games. On being asked if scheduling affected performances, he said that it took a toll on Indians since they had to take part in both the Commonwealth and Asian Games — neither of which were in the 12-event category.