Tokyo, Sept 20:
Newly-crowned Korea Open champion P V Sindhu dished out another splendid performance edging past Japan’s Minatsu Mitani for the second time in as many weeks to reach the second round of the women’s singles at the Japan Open Super Series, here today.
Returning to action after a week’s break, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth also made positive starts to their campaign, notching up contrasting wins in women’s and men’s singles here.
Fresh from a sensational week at Korea, Olympic silver medallist Sindhu continued her good run as she recovered from a game down to edge past Mitani 12-21 21-15 21-17 in the opening round. The Indian had also beaten Mitani in three games at the Korea Open quarterfinals.
The 22-year-old World No 4, who had won a maiden silver at the World Championship last month, thus set up a second round face off with World Champion Nozomi Okuhara for the third time in last three tournaments.
The duo had battled for an hour and 50 minutes at the finals of Glasgow World Championship, before fighting it out for 83 minutes at Korea Open final last Sunday.
Saina, who bagged a bronze medal at World Championship, had skipped the Korea Open due to a slight thigh strain. She took 39 minutes to dispatch Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong 21-17 21-9 in the women’s singles opening round.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina will take on reigning Olympic champion Carolina Marin in the next round. Saina has a 4-3 record against the Spaniard, having lost thrice in the last four meetings.
Srikanth, who had won titles at Indonesia and Australia, also produced superlative performance to overcome China’s Tian Houwei 21-15 12-21 21-11 to improve his 1-6 record against the World No. 10.
“The conditions were good here. It was a tough match and was a close one. I always wanted to stay focused and it worked well for me today,” Srikanth, who had reached the quarterfinals at Rio Olympics, told (PTI).
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