Singapore Open: Sindhu, Prannoy, Saina enter second round; Srikanth suffers upset

Singapore, July 13 (IANS): Top Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy and Saina Nehwal sailed into the second round but Kidambi Srikanth suffered a shock defeat against compatriot Mithun Manjunath in the first round of the Singapore Open 2022, here on Wednesday.

Sindhu, seventh in the badminton world rankings, proved too strong for Belgium’s world No 36 Lianne Tan and won the women’s singles match 21-15, 21-11 in 29 minutes.

The two-time Olympic medallist took time to settle into the match. After the scores were tied at 7-all in the first game, the Indian shuttler, seeded third, found her footing and dominated the match from there on.

Sindhu will take on world No 59 Thuy Linh Nguyen of Vietnam in the second round of the BWF Super 500 badminton tournament on Thursday.

In the men’s singles, India’s Mithun Manjunath brought out his A-game against his higher-ranked compatriot Kidambi Srikanth to pull off a major 21-17, 15-21, 21-18 upset in the opening round contest, which lasted exactly an hour.

World No 11 Srikanth, who did not compete in the Malaysian leg of the BWF tour, looked rusty and conceded the first game. He took charge in the next game to stretch the match into a decider.

However, world No 77 Mithun, who overcame two qualifying rounds on Tuesday, came from being 15-16 down in the third game to go on and win the match against Commonwealth Games-bound Srikanth.

Later in the day, India’s Thomas Cup hero HS Prannoy beat Thailand’s Sitthikom Thammasin 21-13 21-16. The Indian, ranked 19th, will face world No. 4 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei, next.

London 2012 bronze medallist Saina Nehwal also got the better of Malvika Bansod with a 21-18 21-14 win to make it to the second round. But, former Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap lost to fifth seed Jonatan Christie of Indonesia 14-21, 15-21.

On the other hand, Ashmita Chaliha, who was promoted from the qualifiers, produced a stunning performance to down Thailand’s world No 12 Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-16 21-11.

Nithin HV-S Ram Poorvisha beat Israel’s Misha Zilberman and Svetlana Zilberman 21-15, 21-14 in mixed doubles. Pooja Dandu and Arathi Sara Sunil also moved into the second round of the women’s doubles after Hu Ling Fang and Lin Xiao Min of Chinese Taipei withdrew from the tournament.