BWF Hong Kong Open | Saina and Sindhu through to the next round

11/24/2016

Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu booked a place for themselves in the next round of the Hong Kong Open keeping the prospect of the two meeting in the quarter finals alive. In the men's draw, Sameer Verma and Ajay Jayaram's wins ensured it was a good day for India in Hong Kong.

Saina Nehwal kept her winning run going with a fighting win over Japanese Sayaka Sato in the second round of the BWF Hong Kong Open. In the first game, Sato kept pace with the Indian till 12 points a piece but Nehwal took five points in a row to take a substantial lead and closed out the game with a score of 21-18.

The second game saw a different Saina, the one who looked to be struggling again, as she could only muster 9 points as the Japanese closed out the game to take the match into a decider. For the second time in as many days, Saina proved her class leading from the start till the end to take the third game and the match 21-16.

PV Sindhu took just over 30 minutes to close out the game against Taiwanese Hsu Ya Ching to book a place in the next round of the event. Sindhu got off to an uncharacteristic bad start letting her opponent take a 4-1 lead in the first game but took 8 out of the next 9 points to lead the game 9-5. Having picked up the pace Sindhu easily closed out the game with a scoreline of 21-10.

The second game was a much closer affair as both players kept each other at arms length, not letting the their opponent take a huge lead. With the score set at 12-12, Sindhu started playing here shots that Ching could not contend with and ended up losing the game 21-14.

Sameer Verma was made to work hard for his victory by Kazumasa Sakai of Japan. In the first game Sakai took a 14-11 lead after Verma had started the game well by racing to 4-1. The Indian pulled the game back to 19-19 but the Japanese won two points on the spin to close out the first game.

Verma, however, came back strong in the second game after the score had reached 10-10 midway through the game. He won 11 of the next 16 points to win the second game 21-16 and set up a decider. The decider again proved to be an easy one for the Indian as he never let his opponent take the lead and won an incredible 7 points in a row to book a place in the next round with a score of 21-11.

Ajay Jayaram, too, made it into the next round after beating Huang Yuxiang in straight games of 21-18, 21-19. While the scorline might suggest it was a close game, Jayaram looked in control from the start till the finish as he raced to a six point lead (8-2) early on in the first game. Yuxiang fought back taking the lead at 11-12 but found himself trailing by a score of 17-12 after losing 6 points in a row.

After winning the first game 21-18, Jayaram lead from start to finish in the second one, with the lead going as high as 7 at one point in the game. Although Yuxiang tried his best to fight back, Jayaram was in no mood to take the match into the third game as he finished the game off at 21-19 in just 39 minutes.

HS Prannoy proved to be India's causality in the second round as he was beaten by Malaysian Chong Wei Feng in a thrilling game that lasted almost an hour. Prannoy won the first game comfortable by a score of 15-21 but lost 21-11 and 21-15 in the other two to crash out of the Superseries event.

BWF Hong Kong Open | Saina and Sindhu through to the next round

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