Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu, K Srikanth, HS Prannoy and Sameer Verma have all won their first-round matches at the Japan Open Superseries on Wednesday. Singapore Open champion B Sai Praneeth was the biggest Indian casualty in the singles draw, while Sourabh Verma also lost his opening match.
Recently crowned Korea Open Superseries champion Sindhu was given a scare by local girl Minatsu Mitani, who won the first game of their encounter quite easily 21-12. However, the Indian world No 4 avoided a huge upset by taking the next two games – 21-15 and 21-17 – to end the match in 64 minutes.
Sindhu will take on another Japanese and her opponent in the finals of the Korea Open and the world championships, Nozomi Okuhara, in the second round.
Srikanth also needed an hour and four minutes to beat China’s Hoiwei Tian 21-15, 12-21, 21-11, while the rest of the Indian singles victors all won their opening matches in straight games. Nehwal beat Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong 21-17, 21-9 in 39 minutes, Prannoy got the better of Denmark’s Anders Antonsen 21-12, 21-14 in 37, while Sameer Verma ousted Thai Khosit Phetpradab 21-12, 21-19 in 40.
Sai Praneeth lost a marathon one-hour-25-minute match to Korea’s Dong Keun Lee 21-23, 21-17, 21-14, while Sourabh Verma did well to take the legendary Lin Dan to three games before losing 11-21, 21-15, 21-13 in 50 minutes.
Ashwini Ponappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy were the only Indian doubles pair who won on Wednesday after beating Thai duo Tinn Isriyanet and Pacharapun Chochuwong 21-17, 21-13.
Satwik lost his men’s doubles match with partner Chirag Shetty to third seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo, despite putting up a good fight in the first game. The final score read 27-25, 21-15 to the Indonesian pair.
Ponappa lost her women’s doubles match with partner N Sikki Reddy to third seeds Ye Na Chang and So Hee Lee of Korea 21-17, 21-12. The men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy also lost their match to eighth seeds Jhe-Huei Lee and Yang Lee 21-18, 21-15.