In what was a very average outing for the Indian shuttlers at the All England Open Badminton Championships, PV Sindhu became India’s ray of light and positivity. The current World No.7 defeated Soniia Cheah in a dominating manner as he won by straight sets 21-11, 21-17 at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham on Wednesday.
Sindhu carried her form from the Swiss Open where he lost the finals to Carolina Marin but played some great badminton to reach that stage. He attacked her Malaysian opponent right from the start and did not allow any time to settle down in the game.
While Cheah did look good in both the starts but failed to hold on to that tempo against someone like Sindhu. The Indian took off from the mid-game in both instances and powered her way through to the second round of the event. PV Sindhu will now face Denmark’s Line Christophersen in the Round of 16.
While Sindhu dazzled on the court and cruised past her opponent both Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth failed to clear the first hurdle at the All England Open Badminton Championships. It was a shocking defeat for the former World No.1 as he went down against Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen 11-21, 21-15, 12-21.
Nguyen wasted no time to shock Srikanth and also the viewers by winning the opening game in a dominant fashion. While the Indian showed a lot of fight, the Irishman simply got the better of him in three games.
The expectations from Parupalli Kashyap were comparatively lower as he went up against World No. 1 Kento Momota. The Commonwealth Gold medallist went down fighting 21-13, 22-20. Kashyap fought well but it was Momota’s first competitive game since his car accident and therefore he was a bit off but did enough to progress.
“I’m in good shape but I could not figure out how to play him, at least at the start, and the beginning of the second game. He’s at a better fitness level and I’m getting there,” Kashyap admitted after the match.
“I could play well in patches and push him to a stage where he got a bit nervous so I can take some positives from the second game. It’s his (Momota’s) first match and he was very good today for a first-round and made very few errors.”
Meanwhile in Men’s Doubles Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy won their first-round match 21-7, 21-10 against the English-Indian pair of Nikhar Garg and Aniruddha Mayekar.
The women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy also tasted victory advancing to the second round after a 21-14, 21-12 win over Thai pair Benyapa Aimsaard and Nuntakarn Aimsaard.
