Korea Open Super 500: Sindhu, Srikanth start with straight-games wins, Satwik-Chirag in second round

Third seed and World No 7 PV Sindhu got her Korea Open Super 500 campaign off to a comfortable start with a straight-forward 21-15, 21-14 win over American Lauren Lam. A short while later in the men’s singles event, Kidambi Srikanth held on in a tight first game but managed to get the better of Malaysian player Daren Liew to progress to the third round with a 22-20, 21-11 win.

This was only the second time Sindhu was up against the 19-year-old, after having beaten the World No 70 in January at the Syed Modi International. Sindhu continued in that same vein of form when she raced to a 4-0 lead in the opening game. It was a lead she would not relinquish through the first game, winning it 21-15.

Lam did show more fight in the second game, matching Sindhu stroke for stroke and even holding a 10-8 lead in the second. That’s when the double Olympic medallist showed her experience on court, winning the next five points in a row.

The American did manage to claw back into the game, trailing the Indian by just a point at 15-14, but that’s when she turned the screws and closed out the encounter by claiming the next six points in a row for the win that came in 34 minutes.

Srikanth though had to work a lot harder for his first ever win over the World No 35 from Malaysia. This was, incidentally, the first time in four meetings that the Indian managed to get a win.

The duo matched each other in the scoring thorough most of the first game. Srikanth did have a game point, at 20-19, but Liew managed to save it, only for the Indian to claim the next to points and take the game.

The second game was much more straight-forward. Srikanth raced to a 4-0 lead, then at 9-8, won the next seven points to go up 16-8. He then won another five consecutive points at 16-11 to take the game and seal the tie.

In the only other women’s singles match that featured an Indian, Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli went down 21-5, 21-13 to second seed An Seyoung of South Korea.

But there were all wins in the doubles matches.

MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila were handed a walkover by South Korean pair Ba Da Kim and Hee Young Park.

In mixed doubles, B Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa held on to a register a tight 21-19, 21-18 win over Singapore’s Jun Liang Andy Kwek and Yujia Jin.

Meanwhile third seeded men’s doubles team of Satwicksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty came up with a comfortable 21-16, 21-15 win over Korean duo Tae Yang Shin and Chan Wang.