Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu comfortably beats Evgeniya Kostetskaya of Russia by 21-13 and 21-19; To face Busanan Ongbumrungpan of Thailand in the next round
PV Sindhu has been without a title show for this year and has been suffering from a slump that is refusing to let go off the young shuttler. Thus, the China Open would be at the top of PV Sindhu’s mind and she did not harm her chances by registering an easy win over unseeded Evgeniya Kostetskaya.
The World No. 3 had little problems in containing her Russian opponent, as the Indian registered a comfortable 21-13 21-19.
The star shuttler, who is seeded third in the BWF World Tour Super 750, cruised in the first round of the Fuzhou China Open, winning 6 consecutive points at one point.
The 2016 Olympic silver medallist was tested by World No. 30 by staging a relatively spirited performance. However, it was a bit too late for Evgeniya, as the Russian ultimately lost by 21-19.
The 23-year-old will now have to face Thailand’s unseeded Busanan Ongbamrungphan in the second round.
Busanan Ongbamrungphan is a rising Thai badminton star and is ranked by BWF at 25 in the World Tour ranking in the Women’s Singles event. The shuttler has faced Sindhu on 9 occasions previously and has lost in all the 9 contests.
Their last meeting in Victor China Open 2018 was an interesting match. Then, Busanan had won the first round by 23-21 and looked set to win the game. However, Sindhu had staged a stunning comeback as the game was stretched down to the wire. The Indian shuttler had clinched the second round by 13-21 before rounding off the decider by 18-21.
Nevertheless, the young Thai shuttling prodigy would look forward to changing the history in her favour.
Elsewhere, Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy bowed out of the tournament after they lost out to Japan’s Shiho Tanaka and Koharu Yonemoto. The Indian pair had given a tough fight in the opening round, narrowly losing out to a 21-19 defeat. They dominated the second round and eventually clinched it by a 15-21 margin. However, it was the last round where they faltered to a 21-17 defeat to return home in the first round itself.
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