Jakarta: P.V. Sindhu was the only Indian who managed to get through to the second round of the Indonesia Masters on Wednesday in what tuned out to be a disappointing day for shuttlers from the country.
While defending champion Saina Nehwal and the in-form men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were knocked out, Sindhu came from a game down to beat Japan’s Aya Ohori.
Sindhu took control of the match after losing the first game 14-21, going on to win the next two 21-15, 21-11. She will next face Japan’s Sayaki Takahashi, who beat Saina 19-21, 21-13, 21-5 in her first-round match.
In the games that were played after Sindhu’s match, India’s male competitors all fell to home opposition. Sameer Verma managed to take his match against Tommy Sugiarto into a tie-breaker but ended up losing 19-21, 21-16, 13-21.
Rankireddy and Chirag lost 20-22, 15-21 to Mohammad Afsan and Hendra Setiawan. Parupalli Kashyap was beaten 14-21, 12-21 by Anthony Ginting, while H.S. Prannoy lost 17-21, 14-21 to Jonathan Christie in the last match of the day.
Earlier, Saina won the first game against Takahashi but was then completely outclassed in the second and third to the point that she only managed to take five points from the final game.
Kidambi Srikanth went down to local favourite Shesar Hiren Rhustavito 21-18, 12-21, 14-21 in a match lasting one hour and three minutes. It was Srikanth’s second consecutive opening round defeat this season as he had also made a first-round exit from the Malaysia Masters last week.
Sourabh Verma lost to Chinese shuttler Lu Guangzu in the opening round as well. Despite winning the first game 21-17, the Indian shuttler went down 15-21, 10-21 in the next two to crash out of the tournament.
In mixed doubles, the Indian pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki Reddy went down in straight games to the South Korean duo of Ko Sung Hyun and Eom Hye Won 8-21, 14-21.
