Asia Championship: Saina, Sindhu off to winning start; Srikanth disappoints again

Asia Championship: Saina, Sindhu off to winning start; Srikanth disappoints again

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Image Courtesy: © Facebook - Badminton Association of India

Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu progressed through to the second round of the Asia Championship in China with comfortable wins over their opponents on Wednesday. However, Kidambi Srikanth crashed out of the first round of a tournament once again after going down to Lee Dong Keun of South Korea.

Saina Nehwal cruised through the first game winning it 21-16. However, the World No. 8 faced a lot of resistance from Fitriani Fitriani in the second game. The Indonesian shuttler took it to 17-17, before Saina raised her game and won the last four points in a row to win the match 21-16, 21-17. The fifth-seed will now face Thailand's Nitchaon Jindapol in the second round on Thursday. Saina enjoys a 6-0 lead in the head-to-head stats against the World No. 25, including two one-sided wins over her this year at the India Open and the Malaysia Open.

PV Sindhu had a much easier outing against her opponent Maria Febe Kusumastuti of Indonesia. The World No. 10 won 21-10, 21-13 in a match which lasted just 30 minutes. However, she faces an uphill battle when she takes on World No. 9 Tai Tzu Ying in the next round. The Chinese Taipei shuttler enjoys a 3-2 lead in her previous encounters against the Indian, although Sindhu did come out on top in their last face off at the Denmark Open last year.

Kidambi Srikanth, India's only representative in the men's draw, continued his poor run of form with another first round exit. The World No. 13 lost 21-13, 12-21, 19-21 to Lee Dong Keun of Korea in a marathon tie which lasted 75 minutes.

Srikanth made a fantastic start to the match and comfortably won the first game 21-13. The Korean fought back in the second, and it turned out to be a closely fought game till 11-11. However, Srikanth won just one more point in that game as Lee Dong Keun dominated the Indian star and won it 21-12.

The Korean continued his domination in the third game to take a 19-15 lead. Srikanth came back to make it 20-19, but couldn't stop Keun from winning the game, and with it the match, 21-19.

India's challenge in women's and men's doubles also came to an end with Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa losing out to Chang Ye Na and Lee So Hee 15-21, 11-21. Pranaav Jerry Chopra and his partner Akshay Dewalkar were knocked out by Or Chin Chung and Tang Chun Man 19-21, 17-21, while Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy were defeated by fifth-seeded pair of Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa 15-21, 13-21.

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