Indonesia Open: PV Sindhu goes past Mia Blichfeldt to enter quarters

Pusarla V. Sindhu of India hits a return during the women's singles match against Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia in the group match between India and Malaysia at TOTAL BWF Sudirman Cup 2019 held in Nanning, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, May 21, 2019. Pusarla V. Sindhu won by 2-0. (Xinhua/Li Jundong/IANS)


Ace Indian shuttler P.V. Sindhu advanced to the quarter-finals of the ongoing $1,250,000 Indonesia Open BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament after defeating Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt in her second-round match on Thursday.

Fifth-seed Sindhu, who is eyeing her first title of the season, defeated Blichfeldt 21-14, 17-21, 21- 11 in a match that lasted for 62 minutes.

The Hyderabadi shuttler was at her absolute best, winning the first game 21-14 without any hiccup in just 18 minutes. However, the Denmark player made a strong comeback in the second game and made Sindhu toil hard for her points during the course of the 23-minute game. Blichfeldt ultimately won the game 21-17, thus pushing the match into the third game.

In the final game, Sindhu, however, made sure she didn’t give her opponent any chance and won 21-11 to progress to the third round of the tournament.

However, there was disappointment in the men’s doubles event as the Indian pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty bowed out of the competition after losing in straight games to Indonesia’s Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.

The Indian pair, which saw off Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin 21-19, 18-21, 21-19 in their opening match, lost 15-21, 14-21 to the Indonesian top seeds in the second round contest which lasted less than 30 minutes.