BWF China Open | Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy progress into second round

Saina saw off USA’s Beiwen Zhang in a comfortable 21-12, 21-13 win in her women’s singles first round in just 29 minutes. In the next round, she will face fifth seed Akane Yamaguchi. Nehwal trails the Japanese one to three in the head-to-head contest which includes their previous match result where Yamaguchi won.

In the last match of the day for India, second seed Sindhu overcame the challenge of Japan’s Sayaka Sato in the first round. The match lasted for 59 minutes where the Indian beat unseeded Sato 24-22, 23-21 in two tight games. In the next round, Sindhu will play China’s Han Yue.

Prannoy, who entered in this tournament after winning the national champion status, beating Kidambi Srikanth in the finals, continued his winning momentum as he took the one-and-half hour to beat Lee Dong Keun.

It was a mixed day for India as Sourabh Verma lost the first round in the men’s singles to France’s Brice Leverdez 14-21, 15-21, 11-21. 

In the round of 32, India’s women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy lost to South Korea’s Ha Na Baek and Chae Yoo Jung 14-21, 15-21.

Later, Ponnappa also lost her mixed doubles match along with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy in a three-game contest. The Indian pair lost 19-21, 21-17, 13-21 to Mathias Christiansen and Christina Pedersen of Denmark.

In the men's doubles, the Indian duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty failed to cross the first hurdle losing to Chinese pair of Cheng Liu and Nan Zhang 13-21, 13-21.

Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy also lost 18-21, 15-21 to Marcus Fernaldi and Kevin Sanjaya of Indonesia.