Indian Open 2016: PV Sindhu carves out hard-fought win, reaches quarter-finals

New Delhi: Two-time World Championship bronze medallist P V Sindhu eked out a hard-fought three-game win over Thailand’s Busanan Ongbumrungphan to enter the quarterfinals of the USD 300,000 Yonex-Sunrise India Open Super Series badminton tournament in New Delhi on Thursday. Sindhu was a little circumspect during the match and committed a few unforced errors before surpassing Busanan 17-21 21-19 21-16 in a women’s singles match that lasted an hour and 16 minutes here at the Siri Fort Sports Complex. Among other Indians, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy suffered a 19-21 12-21 loss to Chinese Taipei’s Chen Hung Ling and Chi-Lin Wang, while Jishnu Sanyal and Shivam Sharma lost 17-21 15-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Lee Sheng Mu and Tsai Chia Hsin in another men’s doubles match. [caption id=“attachment_2593608” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] PV Sindhu in a file photo. AFP[/caption] “It was a close match and it is good to have a tough opponent early in the tournament because it helps you to adjust with the conditions. I was playing her after a long time and I made lot of unforced errors. I was leading and then giving away points. Even some line judgements were not right. I am happy to win and hope to play better tomorrow,” Sindhu told reporters. After losing the opening match, Sindhu changed gears and nosed ahead to a slender 11-9 lead in the second game. From 14-11, the Thai girl started catching up with Sindhu after the Indian failed to connect a few strokes. One such miscued shot at the net took Busanan to 14-14 and she soon grabbed a couple more to have a 16-14 advantage. The Indian came up with a couple of smashes to draw parity at 17-17. With Busanan finding the net and hitting wide, Sindhu took a two-point lead at 20-18. The Indian hit one at the net but roared back into contest when her rival found the net. In the decider, Sindhu lagged 0-4 early on but she managed to grab six consecutive points to march ahead to a 6-4 lead. The Indian stretched the lead to 10-7 but blew it away with Busanan entering the break with a 11-10 lead. After the interval, Sindhu started dominating the proceedings and grabbed an 18-15 lead before another wide shot broke the rhythm. A fierce rally then ended with an unforced error from the Thai player. Sindhu then grabbed the next two points when Busanan failed to connect a couple of strokes at the forecourt. Sindhu, who has not been in the best of form of late, said she would like to make the best of the opportunity in this event. “After recovering from the injury, I have been playing well. I reached the finals of Denmark Open and then won at Macau and Malaysia. But after that I have not been consistent,” she said. “I will be playing four more tournaments after this event and it is going to be very hectic but important. I will look to get more consistent. A lot of ranking points are at stake, so we need to play more events before the Olympic qualification. “After the Thomas and Uber Cup, there will be time to train and get to the peak ahead of the Rio Olympics. Let’s hope for the best,” Sindhu added. Germany’s Marc Zwiebler stunned Chinese seventh seed Tian Houwei, who had reached the finals of the All England Championship, 18-21 21-19 23-21 in a thrilling contest in the men’s singles. Second seed Kento Momota of Japan defeated Hong Kong’s NG Ka Long Angus 21-16 21-11, while Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Vittinghus notched up an upset win over Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen, seeded sixth, 21-12 21-12 in another men’s singles match.