NEW DELHI, Apr 24:
Saina Nehwal entered the second round of women’s singles with a comfortable win but Parupalli Kashyap went down fighting against former World No. 1 Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia in the first round of the men’s singles in the Yonex Sunrise India Open here today.
Saina hardly broke a sweat to overcome Belaetrix Manuputi of Indonesia 21-12 21-15 in just 33 minutes while Kashyap put up stiff resistance before losing 21-13 21-23 18-21.
In what turned out to be a mixed day for Indians, K Srikanth registered an upset victory over World No 6 Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark, while Arvind Bhat expectedly lost to World No 8 Kenichi Togo.
RMV Gurusaidutt and Ajay Jayaram won their respective matches against Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto and Vladimir Malkov of Russia.
While Gurusaidutt won by 21-16 21-17 margin, Jayram defeated the Russian with identical game scores of 21-17 21-17.
Talented P V Sindhu came from behind to win 17-21 21-18 21-14 against Yao Xue of China in the women’s singles.
Kashyap, the fifth seeded Indian, played well but failed to prevail over the more experienced Hidayat. It took exactly an hour for Kashyap before his challenge ended at the Siri Fort Complex.
Kashyap has never defeated Hidayat before and the record stands 7-0 in favour of Indonesian.
In the opening game, Kashyap gave Hidayat a run for his money. Relying on his quick smashes and drop shots at the net, the Indian proved to be better than his opponent.
The World No 7 Indian surged ahead to a 16-10 lead and eventually wrapped up the game at 13.
The second game, however, was a see-saw battle and could have gone either way. But Taufik raised his game when it mattered most. (PTI)
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