Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu and H S Prannoy advanced to the second round with straight-game wins in the French Open Super Series badminton tournament on Wednesday.
However, it was curtains for Ajay Jayaram, who squandered a first game advantage to go down fighting 22-20 10-21 18-21 to Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia in another men’s singles match.
In a 45-minute gruelling contest, Sindhu, who had suffered a loss in second round in Denmark Open last week, dished out a gritty performance to prevail 21-9 29-27 over Hong Kong’s Yip Pui Yin in a women’s singles match.
The two-time World Championship bronze medallist Indian will next take on the winner of the match between China’s He Bingjiao and Denmark’s Mette Poulsen.
Sindhu was trailing 2-6 early on in the opening game but the Indian turned the tables with six straight points and then moved ahead with another six-point and five-point bursts before pocketing it comfortably.
The second game, however, turned out to be an edge-of-the seat thriller as despite leading 7-3 at one stage, Sindhu could not stop Yip from grabbing the lead at 15-13 and 19-16.
Sindhu then changed gears and what ensued next was a tough neck and neck battle till the final point as the duo moved from 19-19 to 26-26. At 26-27, Sindhu reeled off three consecutive points to storm into the second round.
Swiss Open champion Prannoy also disposed off Thailand’s Boonsak Ponsana 21-16 21-18 in a 41-minute clash to set up against Chinese Taipei’s Chou Tien Chen, seeded fifth.
