Sindhu, Srikanth begin well at Indonesia Open

Jakarta (PTI): Top Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth made impressive starts to their campaign, progressing to the second round of the Indonesia Open with contrasting wins at the BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament here Wednesday.

Rejuvenated after a month-long break from a hectic BWF schedule, Sindhu and Srikanth prevailed over Japanese shuttlers Aya Ohori and Kenta Nishimoto in women's and men's singles respectively. Fifth seed Sindhu, who is looking for her first title of the season, staved off a challenge from Ohori with a 11-21 21-15 21-15 win, while eighth seed Srikanth, who had entered the finals at India Open this year, beat Nishimoto 21-14 21-13 in 38 minutes.

While Sindhu extended her stranglehold over Ohori with seventh straight victory, it was Srikanth's fifth win over Nishomoto, who had defeated the Indian only once in their six meetings. While World No 5 Sindhu will face either Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt or Hong Kong's Yip Pui Yin next, World No 9 Srikanth meets the winner of the clash between France's Brice Leverdez and Hong Kong's Ng Ka Long Angus. Among other Indians, HS Prannoy and B Sai Praneeth bowed out of the men's singles competition.

Praneeth, who had reached the Swiss Open final this year, lost 15-21 21-13 10-21 to Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent, an opponent against whom he had a 2-2 head-to-head count before the match. Prannoy too dished out a good performance but couldn't get past China's second seed Shi Yu Qi, losing 21-19 18-21 20-22 in a 71-minute match. Mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa also crashed out after losing 13-21 11-21 to Indonesian combination of Winny Oktavina Kandow and Tontowi Ahmad