Saina sails, Sindhu toils

Fuzhou,
Star Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal made perfect starts to their campaigns at the China Open Super Series Premier by entering the women’s singles second round with straight-game wins over their respective rivals here today.
While Saina made short work of USA’s Beiwan Zhang, second seed Sindhu had to dig deep to get the better of Sayaka Sato of Japan.
Saina, who recently won the National Championships after beating Sindhu in the final, needed exactly 30 minutes to tame Zhang 21-12 21-13 in her tournament opener.
Fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi, who beat China’s Xiaoxin Chen 21-12 21-14, meets Saina in the next round. Saina trails Yamaguchi 1-3 in the head-to-head record with the Japanese winning their previous three clashes.
Later in the day, Sindhu toiled for 59 minutes to get the better of Sato 24-22 23-21. Sindhu next plays Chinese qualifier Yue Han.
World No. 11 HS Prannoy made it to the second round of the men’s singles but he had to work hard for that. Prannoy had to fight it out for exactly one-and-a-half hours to beat Korea’s Dong Keun Lee 18-21 21-16 21-19. Prannoy will be up against Cheuk Yiu Lee in the next round.
However, it was curtains for Sourabh Verma, who lost to France’s Brice Leverdez 21-14 15-21 21-11.
The men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also failed to cross the opening hurdle, losing to the Chinese pair of Cheng Liu and Nan Zhang 21-13 21-13. Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy were shown the door by top seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia (21-18 21-15).
It was disappointment for India in the women’s doubles and mixed doubles events as well. The women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Siki Reddy were shown the door in the opening round by South Koreans Ha Na Baek and Chae Yoo Jung 21-14 21-15.
Later in the day, Ponnappa’s campaign ended in the tournament when she and Rankiredddy fought hard before losing 21-19 17-21 21-13 to Denmark’s Mathias Christiansen and Christinna Pedersen in the opening round of the mixed doubles.
Lin Dan stunned
Badminton legend Lin Dan saved seven match points before being dumped out of the first round, stunned by Indonesia’s world No. 17 Jonatan Christie. The 21-19 21-16 defeat will ramp up speculation that the 34-year-old Lin, widely regarded as the best badminton player of all time, may soon call it quits as he approaches the end of his brilliant career.
Lee Chong Wei had no such trouble in a 21-5 21-7 demolition of Taiwan’s Hsu Jen-hao.