Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu was distraught after losing the opening round of the Singapore Open but she has roared back with a strong win over Gregoria Marishka Tungjung in the opening round of the Indonesian Open.
It was a massive confidence booster for Sindhu who bowed out of the first round in her last two events. She looked really good in the 38-minute clash against Tungjung as she defeated her 21-19, 21-15 to progress to the pre-quarterfinals.
Tungjung has been dominant over Sindhu this year and this win comes as a blessing for the Indian shuttler. She defeated Sindhu in the finals of the Madrid Masters and also the Malaysian Masters semifinals earlier this year.
Right at the start, Sindhu was trailing 9-7 as the home favourite looked in good touch. However using her full height advantage, Sindhu gained a lead. Once she had the lead, she settled naturally and started playing her natural game. She ultimately closed out a very tight game.
Sindhu carried the momentum from the first game to the second game and started pretty well. She was very precise with her shots that it forced Tungjung to try out something different and in that process, she was drawing out a lot of errors from the Indonesian.
Sindhu will now face Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying in an even tougher battle in the pre-quarter finals. Tai Tzu is the third seed in the Indonesian Open.
HS Prannoy also had a winning start to his Indonesia Open as he defeated Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto 21-16 and 21-14 in 50 minutes. Prannoy is in good touch as he won the Malaysian Masters Super 300 title last month. He will now take on Hong Kong’s NG Ka Long Angus in the round of 16.
While among a couple of good news for the badminton fans, there’s a piece of bad news as well from Indonesia. The women’s doubles duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand have bowed out of the event after losing to the Japanese duo of Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi. It is unusual for them to lose such matches as they lost squandered a match that they were winning. They lost 22-20, 12-21, 16-21.
