Emerging Indian shuttler P.V. Sindhu crashed into the second round comfortably but it was Anand Pawar as well as K. Srikanth who created ripples at the Japan Open, as they accomplished fabulous victories over their higher-ranked rivals in the men’s singles title.
Sindhu, who is seeded eighth, got the better of local shuttler Yukino Nakai by 21-12 21-13 in less than half an hour to fix a clash with another qualifier Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the women’s singles 2nd round tomorrow.
Anyway, it was Pawar who first dominated the limelight when he registered a 21-17 7-21 21-18 victory over world number 12 Sony Dwi Kuncoro of Indonesia, who is a 2004 Athens Olympics bronze medalist too. World No 37 Pawar, who rode on his clear winners to deal with Kuncoro in the 59-minute battle, won the silver apart from bronze medals at the World Championship in 2007 and 2009 respectively.
On the other side, Thailand Grand Prix Gold winner Srikanth, who had been in robust form at the Indian Badminton league, carried on with his giant-killing act at the Japan Open when he scored a well-fought 22-20 22-24 21-18 over world number 22 Sho Sasaki of Japan in 1 hour and 8 minutes match. In addition, Srikanth enjoyed his powerful smashes and gave Sho an excellent fight too at the nets to haul the victory. This helped him to set up a face-off with second seed and world number 2 Chen Long of China.
Apart from the above, Ajay Jayaram hammered Tien Chen Chou of Chinese Taipei by 21-11 21-18 in another men’s singles match. Unfortunately, Sourabh Verma and Sai Praneeth B could not cross the first hurdle. Moreover, Jun Takemura of Japan destroyed Sourabh’s campaign with a difficult 22-24 21-19 21-14 victory. On the other hand, Sai Praneeth’s struggle against eighth seed Yun Hu of Hong Kong concluded with a disgusting 21-23 18-21 loss for the Indian.
Similarly, it was the end of the road for Tanvi Lad too as she descended 15-21 10-21 to Sayaka Takahashi of Japan in the opening match.
India’s men’s doubles combo Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy B, however crashed into the second round with a 21-17 21-15 victory over local combination of Hiroyuki Saeki and Ryota Taohata in the opening round match.
