Hong Kong Open: Saina, Sindhu, Prannoy enter 2nd round; Kashyap, Sourabh ousted

Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal, P V Sindhu and H S Prannoy made positive starts to their campaign, progressing to the second round of $ 400,000 Hong Kong Super Series in Kowloon, on Wednesday.

London Olympics bronze medallist Saina staved off a spirited challenge from World No 44 Mette Poulsen of Denmark before emerging 21-19, 23-21 winner in a 46-minute match.

World No 11 Saina, who won the bronze at the World Championship, will next face a tough opponent in eighth seeded Chinese Chen Yufei, who had clinched the other bronze at the Glasgow Worlds in August.

Olympic silver medallist Sindhu, seeded second, disposed off Hong Kong's Leung Yuet Yee 21-18, 21-10 to set up a clash with either Japan's Aya Ohori or Russia's Evgeniya Kosetskaya in the next round.

In men's singles competition, Prannoy survived a scare against Hong Kong's Hu Yun to win 19-21, 21-17, 21-15 in a match that lasted a little over an hour.

The World No 10 Indian will face Japan's Kazumasa Sakai, who had defeated the Indian in the semifinals of Indonesia Open Super Series Premier.

In the men's singles event, Commonwealth Games champion Kashyap squandered an opening game advantage to go down narrowly 21-15, 9-21, 20-22 to Korean Lee Dong Keun in a match that lasted an hour and nine minutes.

Sourabh, meanwhile, failed to put up a fight against Indonesia's Tommy Sugiarto, losing 15-21, 8-21 to bow out of the competition.

IMAGE: Saina Nehwal

Photograph: Twitter