Indonesian Open: Saina, Kashyap advance to pre-quarters; Sindhu crashes out

All the Indian shuttlers, including World No.1 Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth, barring P.V. Sindhu, progressed to the round-of-16 of the $800,000 Indonesia Open Superseries Premier at the Istora Gelora Bung Karno Stadium here on Wednesday. Saina defeated Thailand’s Nichaon Jindapon 21-16, 21-18 in the first round while her Sindhu crashed out of the competition, losing to Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Ya Ching 15-21, 14-21. [caption id=“attachment_2276874” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File picture of Saina Nehwal. PTI[/caption] Also advancing to the second round were Parupalli Kashyap, who ousted Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk of Thailand 21-17 21-7 in just 29 minutes, and men’s doubles pairs of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar, Manu Atrri and B. Sumeeth Reddy, and women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa. Indonesia’s World No.14 Tommy Sugiarto created a huge upset in the first round as he got rid of China’s five-time Olympic champion and second seed Lin Dan with a 19-21, 21-8, 21-16 victory in an hour and 17 minutes. Japan’s Yui Hashimoto also hogged the limelight as the world No.30 registered a 10-21, 21-15, 21-17 win over Spain’s reigning women’s singles world champion Carolina Marin. World No.4 Srikanth edged past Danish Hans-Kristian Vittinghus 11-21, 21-14, 24-22 in 50 minutes, while Jwala-Ashwini got the better of Chinese Taipei’s Ya Ching Hsu and Yu Po Pai 21-17, 19-21, 21-11 in 42 minutes. Pranaav-Dewalkar defeated Canada’s Adrian Liu and N.G. Derrick 21-17, 22-20 in 35 minutes, while Manu-Sumeeth shocked Chinese Taipei’s fourth seeded Lee Sheng Mu and Tsai Chia Hsin 21-13 21-11 in 26 minutes. Olympic bronze medallist Saina, who has won here in 2009, 2010 and 2012, pocketed the first round match in 35 minutes. Although she faced some strong hurdles en route, she lived up to her billing. At one point in the second set, world No.27 Jindapon was 18-17 ahead but a strong comeback from the Hyderabadi shuttler ensured she clinched four consecutive points and with it the encounter. With this win, the 25-year-old Saina took a 4-0 lead in career meetings against the Thai. Sindhu, however, lost out to Ching in a gruelling contest that lasted for 49 minutes. The two-time World Championships bronze medallist clinched the first game easily 21-16. But then it was Ching who had the last laugh as she grabbed two consecutive games. Ching will now face Saina in the next round on Thursday, the winner of which will book a place in the in the women’s singles quarter-finals. In the men’s singles, World No.12 Kashyap, who set up a second round clash against World No.5 Son Wan Ho, battled hard to win the first game. But the Commonwealth Games champion did not give any chance to Tanongsak to stage a comeback as he sealed the second game, giving away just seven points. Kashyap, 28, next takes on fifth seed South Korean Son Wan Ho, who has a 3-1 head-to-head record against the India. Son defeated China’s Tian Houwei 21-15, 21-16. In the other men’s singles encounter, Srikanth handed over a easy victory in the first to Vittinghus. However, he bounced back in the second game and won it easily, 21-14. In the third game, both fought hard before Sriakanth pulled up a stiff 24-22 victory that also took a 2-1 lead over the Danish in the career meetings. Top seed and World No.1 Chen Long also advanced to the round of 16 with a comfortable 21-19, 21-12 win over Hong Kong’s Wei Han. Reigning world champion Chen will face England’s Rajiv Ouseph in the next round on Thursday. PTI