P V Sindhu eased into the second spherical with a straight-game win after fellow Indian Lakshya Sen confirmed his mettle with a surprising victory over world No. 10 Japanese Kanta Tsuneyama on the opening day of Indonesia Masters Super 750 right here on Tuesday.
Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu, seeded third, recorded a 21-15 21-19 win over Thailand’s Supanida Katethong in a 43-minute girls’s singles match to arrange a second-round conflict with Spain’s Clara Azurmendi.
However, the spotlight of the day was Lakshya’s win over Kanta Tsuneyama within the males’s singles.
The 20-year-old from Almora, who had reached the semifinals at Hylo Open Super 500 and ultimate of Dutch Open, displayed large grit on strategy to a 21-17 18-21 21-17 win over Kanta in an hour and eight minutes.
Lakshya will face prime seed and two-time world champion Kento Momota of Japan within the subsequent spherical.
Sindhu didn’t have a lot bother in outwitting Supanida within the opening recreation as she ran up a lead of 11-5 and saved her opponent at a distance even after the break.
Supanida was extra aggressive within the second recreation as she saved snapping at Sindhu’s heels. The Indian opened up an 11-8 lead on the break however the Thai participant saved lurking round.
At 19-18, Sindhu grabbed two match factors. Supanida saved one earlier than Sindhu sealed the affair.
In males’s singles, Lakshya, ranked nineteenth, continued his wealthy vein of type to shock his higher-ranked opponent.
Lakshya rallied his means from 6-9 down within the opening recreation to first seize a 13-11 lead after which reeled off 4 straight factors from 14-13 to go away Kanta behind and achieve an higher hand.
In the second recreation, Lakshya was up 4-0 however Kanta clawed his means again at 10-8. The Indian ensured that he had his nostril forward on the interval however his one-point benefit was blown away by the Japanese, who broke off from 14-14 to roar again into the competition.
In the decider, Lakshya confirmed nice psychological fortitude as he fought again from 3-6 to leap to 13-8 with a six-point burst. Kanta made it 16-16 however Lakshya ensured he had the final snigger as he gained 5 of the subsequent six factors to enter the second spherical.
However, sixth seeded Indian males’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty misplaced 17-21 15-21 to Malaysia’s Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi to bow out of the competitors.
Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy additionally entered the second spherical after beating Denmark’s Alexandra Boje and Mette Poulsen 9-21 21-11 21-18 in below an hour.
