JAKARTA: India had a mixed result on the first day of the ongoing Indonesia Open 2023 as many women’s double pair suffered early exit while the ace players dominated their men’s and women’s singles matches respectively in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Playing first on Tuesday, India’s two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu stormed into the second round of the women’s singles event with a straight-game win over local player Gregoria Mariska Tunjung.
The 13th in the BWF world rankings, Sindhu outplayed world No. 9 Gregoria Mariska Tunjung 21-19, 21-15.
Sindhu’s win is remarkable as Tunjung had knocked her out in the Malaysia Masters in the semi-finals. Earlier, the Indonesian shuttler had beaten her in the Madrid Spain Masters title with a victory in the final.
In the opening game, PV Sindhu and Gregoria Mariska Tunjung played toe-to-toe with the lead changing hands multiple times. With the game deadlocked at 14, the Indian stepped up her game and won five straight points to grab the lead despite several tight rallies.
The second game was more straightforward as PV Sindhu dominated Tunjung and sealed the match with ease. PV Sindhu, a former world champion, will face world No. 3 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, who is also the defending Indonesia Open champion, in round two.
In the men’s singles category, HS Prannoy, ranked eighth in the world, won 21-16, 21-14 over Japan’s world No. 11 Kenta Nishimoto in the opening round of the BWF World Tour Super 1000 event to enter the pre-quarterfinal.
HS Prannoy will next play world No. 16 Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong, who defeated two-time world champion Kento Momota of Japan in round 1.
The Indian pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy made a winning start in the men’s doubles category of the ongoing Indonesia Open 2023 as the duo reached the Round of 16.
The Indian pair was leading 21-12, 11-7 when their French opponents Christo and Toma Junior Popov, had to retire from the first-round crash. Christo retired due to a knee injury.
On the other hand, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila crashed out after a 21-12, 6-21, 20-22 defeat to Malaysia’s Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi, the world No. 7 pair and former world championship medallists.
Meanwhile, Indian women’s pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand suffered a defeat in their opening match of the ongoing Indonesia Open 2023 in the women’s doubles on Tuesday.
The Indian pair lost 22-20, 12-21, 16-21 to Japan’s Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi in their opening match. This was Jolly and Gopichand’s fourth straight first-round loss in BWF World Tour tournaments this season.
On Wednesday, Saina Nehwal will go head to head against the world No. 7 Wang Zhi Yi of the People’s Republic of China while Aakarshi Kashyap will take on world No.2 An Se Young of the Republic of Korea in the round of 32.
Commonwealth Games 2022 champion Lakshya Sen, who is currently 19th in the BWF world rankings, will play his campaign opener against world No. 10 Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in the round of 32. Meanwhile, former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth will play Lu Guang Zu in the opener. (ANI)