Singapore Superseries: PV Sindhu, Sai Praneeth advance to second round; Sameer Verma, Sourabh bow out

Singapore: Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu staved off a stiff challenge from 2016 All England champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan to make a positive start to her campaign at the Singapore Open on Wednesday. Sindhu, who had clinched her maiden India Open Super Series title earlier this month, fought back from a game down to eke out a 10-21 21-15 22-20 win in the opening round of a women’s singles match that lasted an hour and two minutes. [caption id=“attachment_3360842” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of PV Sindhu. PTI[/caption] The fifth seeded Indian will face Indonesian Fitriani Fitriani next. Runners-up at Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in January, B Sai Praneeth also dished out a gritty performance to prevail 17-21 21-7 21-19 over Denmark’s Emil Holst. The Indian will clash with China’s Qiao Bin on Thursday. The new pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also showed their prowess in a fighting 21-19 21-19 win over Malaysian combo of Yin Loo Lim and Yap Cheng Wen in women’s doubles competition. However, it was curtains for Verma brothers – Sourabh and Sameer – as well as for Rituparna Das in singles events. While National Champion Sourabh failed to match Indonesia’s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting and lost 15-21 14-21 in just 39 minutes, Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold champion Sameer battled hard before going down 26-28 21-23 to Hong Kong’s Hu Yun. Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Ya Ching ended Rituparna’s campaign, handing her an 18-21 13-21 defeat in 58 minutes. Mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankirteddy and Maneesha K, however, lost 13-21 21-16 11-21 to Lu Ching Yao and Chiang Kai Hsin of Chinese Taipei, while men’s doubles combo of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy suffered an 8-21 16-21 defeat to Japanese combo of Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda.