Indonesia Open champion Kidambi Srikanth, Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu and B Sai Praneeth started a strong India campaign for India in the Australian Open Super Series on Wednesday as they reached the second round of the tournament in Sydney.
Riding high on recent success, a confident Srikanth beat Taipei Kan Chao Yu of China 21-13, 21-16 in the men’s singles first round. He will now play Korea’s Son Wan Ho who is ranked top seed in the second round.
Rio Olympic silver medalist P V Sindhu defeated Indonesia Super Series Premier champion Sayaka Sato of Japan 21-17, 14-21, 21-18 in a match that lasted an hour and five minutes.
The opening round victory was a little harder for Praneeth who defeated Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia 10-21, 21-12, 21-10. He will now fight against China’s Huang Yuxiang in the second round of the men’s singles category.
In the women singles category, former World No. 1 Nehwal led India’s campaign by defeating fourth seed Korea’s Sung Ji Hyun in straight sets 21-10, 21-16.
It was however end of the road HS Prannoy, who reached the semi-finals in Indonesia, Ajay Jayram, Praupalli Kashyap and Siril Verma who lost the opening rounds in the men’s categories.
Men and women doubles campaign also failed to progress as Francis Alwin and Tarun Kona lost in the opening round 17-21, 15-21 to Hendra Setiawan Boon Heong Tan while Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy also faced 20-22, 6-21 defeat by third seeds Takeshi Kamura Keigo Sonoda of Japan.
