German Open Badminton: PV Sindhu enter second round of German Open- Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and World Championships silver winner Kidambi Srikanth registered contrasting wins to advance to the second round of the $180,000 German Open Super 300 badminton tournament on Tuesday. Follow German Open Badminton updates on Insidesport.IN
Seventh seed Sindhu trounced Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-8, 21-7 in a lop-sided contest after Srikanth, seeded 8th, saw off France’s world no 39 Brice Leverdez 21-10, 13-21, 21-7 in 48 minutes.
German Open Badminton: PV Sindhu begins German Open campaign with emphatic 21-8, 21-7 win over Busanan Ongbamrungphan
It was Sindhu’s 15th win over the world no. 11 Thai player, while Srikanth too extended his head-to-head count over Leverdez to 4-0 after this victory.
Sindhu, a 2019 world champion, will meet either Spain’s Beatriz Corrales or China’s Zhang Yi Man next, while world no. 11 Srikanth will take on China’s Lu Guang Zu.
German Open Badminton: Srikanth, who was forced out of the India Open Super 500 event in January after testing positive for COVID-19, has a 2-0 record against world no. 27 Chinese.
The Indian mixed doubles pair of Sai Pratheek K and N Sikki Reddy, however, endured a difficult time against top seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand, going down 19-21 8-21 in their opening match.
Sindhu was playing in a different gear against Busanan, who failed to pose any threat to the Indian during the 32-minute match.
German Open Badminton: PV Sindhu begins German Open campaign with emphatic 21-8, 21-7 win over Busanan Ongbamrungphan
It was a complete domination from the Indian as she moved to 11-4 in no time and soon earned the bragging rights. The second game was also not too different as from 7-5, Sindhu marched ahead and shut the door on her rival without much ado.
In the men’s singles match, Srikanth looked in good touch as he zoomed from 6-6 to 19-8 in a jiffy and pocketed the opening game comfortably.
Leverdez made a roaring comeback in the second game as he dominated the proceeding and led from the start to finish to make it 1-1.
In the decider, Srikanth found his rhythm back as he made his way to 11-5 at the break and kept his nose ahead to soon jump to 18-7 before sealing it comfortably in the end.
German Open Badminton: PV Sindhu begins German Open campaign with emphatic 21-8, 21-7 win over Busanan Ongbamrungphan
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