Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu reached the second round of the women’s singles event of the Denmark Open Super Series Premier here on Wednesday.
While 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist Saina was made to work hard for her 12-21, 21-10, 21-12 win over Germany’s Karin Schnaase, two-time World Championships bronze medallist P V Sindhu registered a 21-12, 22-20 victory over Hong Kong’s Pui Yin Yip at the Odense Sports Park.
But the duo of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa lost in straight games to the Netherlands’ Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek 21-17, 21-15 in just 30 mminutes. Meanwhile, in the men’s singles, Parupalli Kashyap beat Rajiv Ouseph of England 21-15 21-18 to enter the second round of the competition.
Saina got off to a poor start in the first game, losing 12-21 before showing her class to win the second game 21-10 and continued to pressurise Karin with her regal smashes. The World No 7 wrapped up the third game 21-12.
In the other match, Sindhu was in her element from the start as she didn’t allow Yin Yip to settle down. The World No 10 Indian won the first game 21-12 before her opponent got some rhythm going in the second game.
Sindhu won the closely-fought second 22-20 to reach the next round. Earlier, the Indo-Russian mixed doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Vladimir Ivanov were knocked out in the first round, losing 18-21, 18-21 in 30 minutes to Hong Kong pair Yun Lung Chan and Ying Suet Tse.
Later in the day, Kidambi Srikanth registered a 21-15, 17-21, 21-18 victory over China’s Xue Song in a match that lasted one hour and 11 minutes.