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PV Sindhu, Sai Praneeth, and the men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty moved into the quarter-finals of the Super 750 Japan Open in Tokyo played on Thursday.
PV Sindhu defeated Aya Ohori of Japan 11-21, 21-10, 21-13 in a tight match. In the first game, Ohori made a great start, taking an early 3-1 lead. Sindhu committed a lot of unforced errors by hitting the shuttle into the net or by pushing it wide.
At the interval, Ohori led 11-6 and looked very comfortable. After the break, the Japanese played with aggression and gave a tough time to Sindhu who got no chance to recover. Sindhu was not at her best and there were even doubts if she could at all pull through. The Japanese won the first game 21-11.
In the second game, Sindhu regained confidence and started playing the attacking badminton she is known for and kept putting pressure on the Japanese. From 2-2 onwards, the 2-time World Championship silver medallist raced to take an 11-5 lead by half-time. After the break, Sindhu continued her domination to win the second game easily at 21-10 to force the match into a decider.
The third game saw Sindhu again making a very positive start to take a 5-2 lead. From 4-8 down, Ohori took points in succession to level the scores at 8-8, giving an anxious moment to Indians. Soon the Indian came back to take control of the proceedings and led 11-8 at the interval.
After the break, Sindhu never looked back and continued her domination to win the third game at 21-13 to move into the quarter-finals. She will take on Akane Yamaguchi of Japan tomorrow.
Sai Praneeth defeated Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan 21-13, 21-16 to enter the quarter-finals. It was a dominating performance by Sai who outplayed his opponent in both games and will now take on Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia.
HS Prannoy lost to Rasmus Gemke of Denmark 9-21, 15-21 to be knocked out of the tournament. Prannoy was no match for the Danish player and failed to provide any resistance.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty defeated Huang and Liu of China 15-21, 21-11, 21-19 to secure a quarter-final berth. The young Chinese pair played with aggression in the first game and won it easily. Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty came back strongly to win the second game, showing their class. Both the pairs fought for each point in the third game before the Indian pair held their nerves to win the game narrowly. They will take on Kamura and Sonoda of Japan in the quarter-finals.
The mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Rankireddy lost to the Thai pair of Puavaranukroh and Taerattanachai 16-21, 17-21 to end their campaign.
