World Champion PV Sindhu continued her unbeaten run at the China Open as she went past the former World No 1 shuttler China’s Li Xue Rue in straight games 21-18, 21-12 to qualify for the pre-quarterfinal stage of the tournament.
Starting from where she left in the World Championship, the Olympic silver-medallist brought another one of her strong performances on the court to defeat the 20th ranked Chinese player. Prior to the match, she had a 3-3 record against the Indian opponent.
Despite saving four-game points in the match, Li Xue Rue clearly had no answers to PV Sindhu’s powerful cross-court smashes. After a tightly contested first game, Sindhu emerged as the winner of the first game 21-18. In the second game, Sindhu’s Chinese opponent looked apparently exhausted while Sindhu brought in her drops right at the net to make the Chinese work hard for each point. Sindhi thus took the second game and the match by 21-12
In the men’s singles category of the competition, India’s B Sai Praneeth defeated Suppanyu Avihingsanon of Thailand in a first-round encounter. The match lasted 72 minutes and was a tightly contested one. Although Praneeth won the first game 21-19, Suppanyu made a brilliant come back to claim the second game 23-21. The deciding game was bagged by Praneeth 21-14. With this win, he has now proceeded to the second round of the competition.
However, it was not all good news from the China Open as India’s Saina Nehwal experienced a first-round defeat to bow out of the tournament. The Indian shuttler lost the match 10-21, 17-21 to Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan.