India’s PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal and both progressed to the second round of the Australian Open Superseries after winning their respective opening games on Tuesday.
Nehwal ousted world No 4 Sung Ji Hyun of Korea in straight games, while Sindhu was stretched to three games by Indonesia Open champion Sayaka Sato of Japan. India’s Ruthvika Shivani Gadde, however, lost her opening match in three games to China’s Chen Xiaoxin.
Nehwal and Sindhu join Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth, who both won their openers in the men’s singles draw, in the second round.
Nehwal breezed through the first game against Sung, winning it comfortably 21-10. The Korean put up a fight in the second, winning five consecutive points to make it 14-14, but could not last the distance as Nehwal clinched it 21-16. Nehwal will face the winner of the match between Hong Kong’s Cheung Ngan Yi and Malaysia’s Soniia Cheah in the second round.
Sindhu’s match against Sato was a lot tighter, as the Japanese kept at her heels throughout the first game before the Indian won it 21-17. Sato moved up a gear in the second half of the second game. Trailing 10-13, she won seven consecutive points before going on to take the game 21-14 and force a decider.
The two players were neck and neck in the first half of the third game, with Sindhu taking a narrow 11-9 lead into the interval. Some amazing long rallies were exchanged between the two players, before Sindhu raced to a 20-14 lead, with six match points.
Sato was in no mood to give up, though, as she saved four of those match points to make it 20-18 to the Indian. Sindhu, however, avoided an upset as she won the next point to seal the win. The match lasted an hour and five minutes. Sindhu will play Chen, who beat Gadde 21-17, 12-21, 21-12, in the second round.
In women’s doubles, India’s Ashwini Ponappa and N Sikki Reddy beat Australia’s Hsuab-Yu Wendy Chen and Jennifer Tam in straight games – 21-11, 21-23 – to reach the second round.