Asian Games: Saina, Sindhu make winning start, men's team knocked out
Indian eves defeated Macau to start their Asian Games' badminton campaign
Incheon: Star shuttlers Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu hammered their respective rivals in straight games as India opened their Asian Games' badminton campaign with a 3-0 triumph over Macau to enter the women's team event quarterfinals in Incheon on Saturday.
The entire tie lasted under one and a half hour as Indians outplayed their rivals with clinical precision. Saina opened the proceedings for the team and hardly broke a sweat before thrashing Kit Ieng Wong 21-6 21-4 in just 21 minutes.
Sindhu was the next player in and she was also in rampaging form, beating Teng Iok U 21-8 21-9. Sindhu, who won a bronze medal in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, took just 24 minutes to wrap the issue in her favour.
In the doubles match, N Sikki Reddy and Pradnya Gadre faced some stiff challenge from Zhibo Zhang and Rong Wang before prevailing 21-16 21-17 in the 32-minute contest.
Men's team knocked out:
The men's team was outplayed by South Korea 0-3. K Srikanth and Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Parupalli Kashyap went down in contrasting fashions while the doubles team of Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri also failed to come good.
Srikanth was the first to take the court and was hardly a match for Wanho Son, who breezed past him 21-14 21-8 in 37 minutes. The doubles match was next and here too, South Korea dominated and notched the match 21-12 21-9 in 35 minutes to take a formidable lead.
In the crucial third match, Kashyap was up against former world number one Hyunil Lee. The Indian displayed fine form by taking the opening game 21-6 in 12 minutes but it was all downhill from there on.
Lee bounced back remarkably to clinch the next two games 21-14 21-10. Kashyap fought hard in the decisive third game, which lasted 44 minutes, but fell short in the final analysis.