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In a tale of contrasting fortunes for the two Indian shuttle queens, PV Sindhu made it to the second round of the China Open 2018, but Saina Nehwal crashed out of this Super 1000 tournament in Changzhou, China on Tuesday. Third seed Sindhu rebounded from her shock second round defeat at last week’s Japan Open in style as she notched up a 21-15, 21-13 win over the 39th ranked Saena Kawakami of Japan in just 26 minutes.
The World No. 3 accelerated from a 7-7 tie in the first game to build an 11-7 advantage at the mid-game interval. Sindhu wasn’t troubled much thereafter as she effortlessly pocketed the opener.
In the second game, the Indian raced ahead to a 6-1 lead before the Japanese mounted a comeback and kept it just a two-point difference at 9-11. Post-interval, Kawakami even trailed Sindhu by one point at 11-12 only to see a burst of pace and power from the Indian, who eventually closed out the win.
Nehwal squanders a one-game lead
Nehwal was always supposed to have a tough encounter against the former World No. 2 Sung Ji Hyun of Korea. The Indian is placed just one rung below her ninth-ranked opponent in the world rankings and the battle lived up to the expectations.
The World No. 10 Indian began well, building a 17-12 lead from where the Korean began her comeback. She took the next seven points and went ahead to 19-17 only to see the Indian holding her nerves to wrap up the tight first game 22-20.
It was too much of a physical effort for Saina, who never looked the same player from thereon. Struggling with the conditions and with her opponent’s tremendous defence, Nehwal went down 6-11 in the second game. Sung never relented and the Commonwealth Games gold medallist could win only a couple more points to gift the second game 8-21.
In the decider, the Korean picked up from where she had left in Game 2. In a mirror image of the second game, Sung was once again up 11-6 at the mid-game break.
After Sung went up to 17-10, the former World No. 1 tried her best to stall her opponent’s momentum and she was able to take four more points, with the scoreboard showing 19-14 in favour of Sung. But the determined Korean refused to give her any more chance after that as she grabbed the next couple of points as well to close out a 20-22, 21-8, 21-14 win in 48 minutes.
This was Nehwal’s first match since winning a bronze medal at the Asian Games in August.
Big win for Attri and Reddy
A week after knocking out the Rio Olympic silver medallists at the Japan Open, the Indian national men’s doubles champions Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy kept their run going by defeating the World No. 13 pair of Liao Min Chun and Su Ching Heng. The Indians had to do it the hard way after coming back from a game down to prevail over the more-fancied pair 13-21, 21-13, 21-12.
The mixed doubles combine of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy made it a flawless day for India in doubles with a 21-19, 21-17 win over Germany’s Marvin Emil Seidel and Linda Efler.
