India’s ace badminton player PV Sindhu won a tough battle against the local player Aya Ohori in the women’s singles second round of Japan Open in Tokyo on Thursday to march into the quarterfinals.
Sindhu, who won a silver medal at the recently concluded Indonesia Open tournament last week, lost the first set of the match to Ohori 21-11. However, she made a remarkable comeback to win the match 11-21,21-10, 21-13 in 61 minutes.
Sindhu, who had finished runner-up at Indonesia Open Super tournament last week, lost the opening game to unseeded Aya Ohori 21-11 before making a strong comeback to take the match 11-21, 21-10, 21-13 in 61 minutes.
Sindhu had registered a similar win in the match against the same opponent in Indonesia Open last week in which she had come back after losing the first game. Coincidentally, she had lost the first game of that match with exactly the same margin- 11-21.
In the Japan Open tournament, Sindhu has never been beaten by Aya Ohori and has emerged victorious on all the eight occasions.
It is worth noting here that this is the first time that Sindhu has gone past the second round of the Japan Open.
Although Sindhu was struggling to put up a good performance in the early part of the season, she has looked in good form since returning to professional badminton after she took a break in between.
She looked all set to win a gold medal in Indonesia Open but failed to cross the final hurdle. She was up against Akane Yamaguchi in the final. Sindhu may have a chance to avenge her final’s defeat against her as she is expected to meet her in Friday’s quarterfinal.
In the men’s single category, B Sai Praneeth also continued his good form with a convincing win over Japan’s Kanta Tsuneyama to reach the quarterfinals of the competition.
Indian men’s doubles duo Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also proceeded to the next round of Japan Open after beating Huang Kai Xiang and Liu Cheng of China 15-21, 21-11, 21-19.
However, HS Prannoy failed to make it to the next round. Although he had impressed with his match-winning performance against compatriot Kidambi Srikanth in the first round, he was beaten in straight-games to Rasmus Gemke of Denmark. Prannoy lost the match 9-21, 15-21 in 49 minutes.