French Open Badminton: PV Sindhu advances to second round; Ajay Jayaram crashes out
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PV Sindhu advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the French Open after beating Hong Kong's Pui Yin Yip 21-9, 29-27 in the opening round on Wednesday. In the men's singles, HS Pronnoy also advanced to the next round after beating Boonsak Ponsana, while Ajay Jayaram was defeated by Anthony Ginting.
After suffering an early exit from the Denmark Open Super Series last week, Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu came back strongly by booking a place in the second round of the French Open Super Series with a win over World 34 Pui Yin Yip on Wednesday.
In a match that lasted 45 minutes, Sindhu dominated the proceedings winning the first game easily by 21-9. But in the second game, the Indian ace had to dig deep as Yip showed some remarkable resilience to fight back. Despite trailing 3-7 at one stage, Yip stormed into the lead by making it 15-13 and then 19-16. Sindhu then won three straight points to make it 19-19. Â After a string of rallies, both the players were tied at 26-26. At 26-27, Sindhu won three consecutive points to progress into the next round.
Sindhu will now face China's He Bingjiao on Thursday in the second round.
In the men's singles, HS Pronnoy also advanced to the pre-quarterfinals after beating Thailand's Boonsak Ponsana 21-16, 21-18. He will face Taiwan's Tien Chen Chou on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Ajay Jayaram lost 22-20, 10-21, 18-21 Indonesia's Anthony Ginting in the opening round, while another Indian shuttler B. Sai Praneeth had to exit from the first round after losing the match to South Korea's Hyun Il Lee 21-15, 8-21, 19-21.
