Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu got off to a winning start in her opening match in the women’s second round of the BWF World Championships on Wednesday.
The shuttler registered a clinical straight games victory over Pai Yu-Po of Chinese Taipei in a contest where she had to work hard for her win. She won the first and second round 21-14 and 21-15, respectively.
Sindhu, who had reached the finals of Indonesia Open last month, looked good in the second round tie after getting a bye in the opening round.
Sindhu will now take on Beiwen Zhang of USA, who defeated Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen of Australia in straight games 21-14, 21-13.
In the match on Wednesday, Sindhu dominated the first game to take an 11-7 lead at the break and then grab six game points to close it with a cross-court return as Pai erred at the backline.
However, Pai came back to enter the break at 11-10 in the second game due to Sindhu’s unforced errors, but the Olympic silver medallist came out stronger after the interval and win 21-14.
It was PV Sindhu’s 6th appearance at the BWF World Championships. The 24-year-old has two back-to-back silver medals and as many bronze in the World Championships but she has been longing for a gold medal till date.
Meanwhile, the Indian duo of Jakkapudi Meghana and Poorvisha S Ram lost 8-21, 18-21 to Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto of Japan in the women’s doubles competition.
(With inputs from IANS)