Indonesia Open: Sindhu, Prannoy advance to Round of 16

Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy advanced to the Round of 16 of the Indonesia Open, a BWF Super 1000 event, after registering wins in their respective opening round matches, here on Tuesday. Sindhu, ranked 13th in the world, secured a win 21-19, 21-15 over world no 9 Indonesian Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, whom she lost in the semifinal of the Malaysia Masters last month. The Indonesian shuttler had earlier denied Sindhu the Madrid Spain Masters title with a victory in the final. With a win, the Indian ace put an end to her two-match losing streak against the Indonesian and extended her head-to-head record to 8-2. Sindhu will face familiar foe world No. 3 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, who is also the defending Indonesia Open champion, in round two. In the men’s singles event, Prannoy registered an easy 21-16, 21-14 win over world No. 11 Kenta Nishimoto of Japan to set up a meeting with Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong, who defeated two-time world champion Kento Momota of Japan in the opening round. However, Indian women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand suffered an early exit after losing 22-20, 12-21, 16-21 to Japanese duo of Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi in their opening match. This was the pair’s fourth straight first-round loss in BWF World Tour tournaments this season. Men’s doubles combination of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila too failed to get past the first round as they suffered 21-12, 6-21, 20-22 loss at the hands of Malaysians Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi.