PV Sindhu strolled past Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in straight games to move into the second round of the Arctic Open badminton tournament in Vantaa, Finland on Tuesday.
Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medalist, had an easy outing as she overwhelmed the Japanese 21-13, 21-6 at the Vantaa Energia Areena. This was the 10th win for the Indian over Nozomi Okuhara in the 19th head-to-head meeting. The two shuttlers have also locked horns in two world championships finals previously, winning once each.
In a battle of former badminton world champions, , the Indian was on the back foot at the start and trailed 0-4 after initial exchanges.
However, world no 13th Sindhu made use of her good reach and rallied back to lead the world No. 29 Okuhara 11-6 at the opening break. The Indian continued the attacking display and took the opening game with ease.
Sindhu’s aggression helped her dominate the court in the second game as well. She led 11-3 at the break and then sealed the match to make it to the round of 16.
In the other women’s singles fixture, Aakarshi Kashyap came from a game down to defeat Lianne Tan of Belgium 18-21, 22-20, 21-18. Kashyap, ranked 41st, will face world No. 11 Wang Zhiyi of China in the round of 16.
Meanwhile, Harshit Agarwal did not make it to the main draw in the men’s singles. He lost the qualifying fixture to Joakim Oldorff of Finland 21-19, 21-12.
In the mixed doubles, the duo of K Sai Pratheek and Tanisha Crasto made it to the round of 32,defeating Danish pair Andreas Sondergaard-Iben Bergstein 26-24, 21-18. in the qualifying round .