Indonesia Masters | PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal reach second round; Parupalli Kashyap bows out

Second-seeded Sindhu started her campaign in the tournament on a positive note as she took only 34 minutes to cross the Indonesian hurdle on Wednesday in her opening game. After winning the first set easily 21-13, she didn’t give an inch to her opponent to even think of a comeback in the match and finished the second set as soon as possible. In the pre-quarterfinals, the World No. 3 player will play against Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei.

Earlier in the day, another Indian shuttler reached in the second round of the women’s singles and it was Saina who faced a tough competitor in comparison to Sindhu as she lost her first game against seventh seed Chen Yufei. But the Indian fought back well in the next two games and took 69 minutes to overcome Chinese player’s challenge and register a 22-24, 21-15, 21-14 win. In the next round, Saina will face another challenge from China when she will play against Chen Xiaoxin.

If the both Indian women’s singles player managed to win their respective game in the second round then they both can face each other in the quarterfinals.

It was not an all good day for the Indians in the Indonesia Masters though as Sameer Verma went down 16-21, 21-12, 10-21 in 53 minutes to Japan’s Kazumasa Sakai. Later, it was Kashyap, who failed to move to the next round, as he was also knocked out of the tournament, losing to Malaysian player Wei Feng Chong 18-21, 18-21 in 41 minutes. 

It was a mixed day for India in the mixed doubles as while Satwiksai Reddy pairing with Chirag Shetty handed a loss to Japan duo of  Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko 21-15, 21-17, another Indian pair of Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy struggled against Chinese Taipei’s Lu Ching Yao and Yang Po Han and failed to enter the next round after losing the match 18-21, 21-16, 16-21.