Seoul (South Korea): P. V. Sindhu and Parupalli Kashyap made it to the second round of the Korea Open Super Series badminton tournament with straight games victories to keep the Indian flag flying at the S. K. Handball Stadium here.
Sai Praneeth, Sameer Verma and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also advanced to the second round. However, H. S. Prannoy, Manu Attri, B. Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa made their exits from the tournament.
Sourabh Verma too lost his first-round match against Kenta Nishimoto of Japan. The Indian fought well before going down with a 21-18, 13-21, 19-21 scoreline in an hour and three minutes.
Sindhu opened her campaign in style by breezing past Cheung Ngan Yi 21-13, 21-8. The Hyderabad girl was too strong for her rival from Hong Kong and made her run about the court before silencing her in 34 minutes.
Sindhu, who finished runner-up in the World Championships last month, will meet Nitchaon Jindapol of Thailand in the second round.
Kashyap took just 35 minutes to get past Hsu Jen Hao of Chinese Taipei with a straight games verdict that read 21-13, 21-16. He will now face top seed Son Wan Ho of South Korea in the next round.
In another match, Sameer upset Thai eighth seed Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk 21-13, 21-23, 21-9 in just under an hour.
By contrast, Praneeth scored a quick win, beating Hong Kong’s Hu Yun 21-15, 21-10 in less than half-an-hour. Prannoy suffered a 17-21, 23-21, 14-21 defeat against Hong Kong sixth seed NG Ka Long Angus.
In the men’s doubles, Manu & Sumeeth lost to South Koreans Chung Eui Seok and Kim Duk Young 11-21, 10-21.
The Satwik-Chirag pair got past Lee Sheng Mu and Lin Chia Yu of Chinese Taipei 21-9, 22-24, 21-12 in 51 minutes. They will now meet Lee Jhe-Huei and Lee Yang, the seventh seeds from Chinese Taipei, on Thursday.
Satwik, however, suffered a loss in the mixed doubles category as he and Ashwini lost to Hong Kong’s Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet 18-21, 19-21.
Ashwini suffered another loss in the women’s doubles. She and N. Sikki Reddy lost to Fie Cho Soong and Jing Yi Tee of Malaysia 21-19, 13-21, 17-21.
