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PV Sindhu easily won but Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were made to work for their win at the India Open.
India Open: PV Sindhu and the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (AP and PTI)
Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu advanced to the second round of the BWF India Open, making a winning start in her first event since marriage on a mixed day for India as seventh-seeded men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty dug deep to win as fifth-seeded women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand crashed out of the Super 750 event at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi on Tuesday.
India Open 2025: Day 1 – Highlights
Sindhu, who is hoping to make it back into the top 10 by overcoming the recent slump in her form and rankings, defeated Sung Shuo Yun of Chinese Taipei 21-14, 22-20 in a 51-minute encounter in the women’s singles Round of 32 encounter.
“After a long break, it’s always difficult to find the rhythm, but I am happy to have won the match in straight games. My shuttle was going midcourt in the second game, but I was always confident I could pull things off,” said Sindhu.
Satwiksairaj and Chirag were froced to a decider but beat Man Wei Chong and Kai Wun Tee of Malaysia 23-21, 19-21, 21-16 in their men’s doubles round of 32 match.
“They have always been a formidable team. They defended quite well, and it was very difficult to penetrate. Their service retrieving was also good. They have improved immensely, but we are happy we could come back in the third,” said Chirag.
Treesa and Gayatri, the Commonwealth Games bronze medallists, were stunned by the unseeded Japanese pair of Arisa Igarashi and Ayako Sakuramoto in a hard-fought clash, going down 21-23, 19-21 in a close encounter.
Former World No.1 Srikanth Kidambi, who got a late entry into the main draw following some withdrawals, failed to turn up for his match and China’s World No. 21 Hong Yang Weng advanced to the Round of 16 with a walkover.
Fellow Indian Kiran George, another late entry into the main draw, advanced to the second round with a hard-fought three-game win over Yushi Tanaka of Japan, who is ranked 25th in the BWF Rankings.
Kiran, the World No. 38, won the men’s singles Round of 32 match 21-19, 14-21, 27-25 in the 71-minute encounter.
“I was hoping for the last-minute entry as I was first reserve and had come here on Saturday itself to ensure that I am well prepared,” said Kiran.
“Even last year, I lost 4-5 matches from a winning position and hence I have been working on such situations in practice. Even today, things go difficult but I managed to keep my composure and pull through,” he added.
The mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila andTanisha Crasto also reached the Round of 16, beating Cheng Kuan Chen/Yin-Hui Hsu of Chinese Taipei in three games, coming back after losing the first game to win 6-21, 21-10, 21-17 in 51 minutes on Court 1.
“I think first game we couldn’t really understand the conditions. Especially in the morning we were freezing out. But I think, in the second and third game we were moving very quick and not giving easy attacks to them and that pretty much changed the game,” said Kapila.
In women’s singles, Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon was among the top players to advance to the next round. She defeated Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 21-13, 21-15 in a clash between two former World Champions that lasted 36 minutes.
(With inputs from Agencies)
