Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Ajay Jayaram and HS Prannoy entered the second round of the $350,000 Hong Kong Open Superseries on Wednesday.
The 2016 Olympic silver medallist Sindhu eased past Susanto Yulia Yosephin of Indonesia 21-13, 21-16, while Saina overcame Thai Porntip Buranaprasertsuk 12-21, 21-19, 21-17 in 56 minutes.
World No.6 Saina’s battling win over World No.12 Porntip will give her a lot of confidence as it was only the second tournament she is participating since her knee surgery in August.
The illustrious Indian accepted that she was surprised with her performance on the day.
“I am very surprised with this victory #Second tournament after the recovery from knee surgery and through to the second round,” Saina wrote on Twitter.
In the second round, she will face Japanese Sayaka Sato, who moved past Chinese Taipei’s Chiang Mei Hui.
Sindhu will meet Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Ya Ching, who stunned South Korean seventh seed Sung Ji Hyun 20-22, 21-14, 21-19.
In the men’s singles competitions, Sameer Verma beat Japanese Takuma Ueda 22-20, 21-18 in 51 minutes, while Prannoy beat Qiao Bin 21-16, 21-18 in 48 minutes.
Ajay Jayaram beat Indonesian Anthony Ginting 21-15, 13-21, 21-16 in 56 minutes.
“A thrilling victory against ginting. Feels especially good as I had lost twice to him earlier this year.Looking forward to the next round,” Jayaram tweeted after his victory.
However, B Sai Praneeth had a tough outing as he was beaten by Danish third seed Jan ‘O’ Jorgensen 18-21, 18-21.
The Indian doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy too lost in the opening round, losing 15-21, 8-21 to South Koreans Solgyu choi and Ko Sung Hyun.