India’s teen sensation goes down to Shixian Wang in first round; Saina, lee Chong Wei move into second round
PV Sindhu’s all three previous matches against Shixian Wang has made her what she is today, giving her a tagline of giant-killler. But on Wednesday, the third seed Chinese pulled one back to her credit, making it a mixed day for India as Parupalli Kashyap lit up the Siri Fort Sports Complex with an inspiring 21-12, 17-21, 21-12 show to march into second round with an upset victory.
Eight seed Saina Nehwal registered an easy victory over Simone Prustch 21-7, 21-9 and in the second round the london Olympics bronze medalist will play Thailand’s Natcha Saengchote.
In the last match of the day world number one and defending champion lee Chong Wei thrashed Indian qualifier K Ajay Kumar 21-9, 21-9 in less than 25-minutes encounter.
Kashyap not only matched the class of sixth seed Zhengming Wang but also overcame the fitness problem related to shoulder. After the dislocation in German GP, he is currently playing with strapping which means the intensity level on smashes can’t be perfect. But he countered that problem by playing well near the net and moved really well inside the court.
The 24th-ranked Hyderabadi had lost twice to the Chinese before the match and said he is now happy to win a match.“I have played him twice before and he is very good at anticipating the opponents strokes. So today I kept playing at a faster pace and took a few risks and that helped me,” said Kashyap after the match.
Kashyap will next play RMV Guru Sai Dutt, who got the better of Tien Chen Chou of Chinese Taipei 17-21, 21-16, 21-17. However, Sindhu was not as lucky as Kashyap. She paid for some unforced errors and inaccurate shot selection.
In the first game, Sindhu was to slow to start with and allowed Wang to widen the gap. Wang took four points gap to be at 13 against the Indian but Sindhu fought her way back by going upto 11 points. But the reigning All England champion again had her way and took five straight points to ease to 21-15 win. The second game witnessed see-saw battle till 10 points for both players. later, Sindhu’s wider reach and aggressive approach pulled her into contention and she accumulated points incessantly to win 21-12.
At the start of the third set, Sindhu continued with fine play and was up 3-0 when Shixian opened her game point. But suddenly, Sindhu made a lot of errors and allowed the second seed to claw her way back to the match. She took a 5-4 lead and extended the lead to 16-4 before rapping it up with volley of drop smashes. She won the third game 21-10 to silence the home crowd.
“I was playing well in rallies but my finishing was not good. I made a lot of mistakes. At some moments, she took away points which could have been mine. In the third set, she played really well and collected several points and then it was too late,” Sindhu told reporters.
After the women national champion was ousted, men national champion Kidambi Srikanth also lost to Takuma Ueda 21-18, 21-18. Men’s world number two Chen long defeated HS Prannoy while Sourabh Verma beat Vladimir Ivanov 21-16, 17-21, 21-14. In women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponappa and Jwala Gutta also moved into the second round.