Indonesia Open: Sindhu extended by Japan's Ohori

India's double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu showed great determination to outwit Japan’s Aya Ohori in the women's singles opening round, while B Sai Praneeth and Kidmabi Srikanth also advanced to the men's singles second round, of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 event, in Bali, on Wednesday.

After a slow start, the reigning World champion fought back to register a 17-21, 21-17, 21-17 in 70 minutes.

The victory saw Sindhu extend her impressive record against the Japanese shuttler to 11-0.

World No. 7 Sindhu, who made a semi-final exit after suffering a straight games defeat to Japan's Akane Yamaguchi last week in Bali, will meet 23-year-old German Yvonne Li in the second round.

It will be the first meeting between the third seeded Indian and world No. 26 Li.

In the men's singles, world No. 16 B Sai Praneeth clinched a 21-19, 21-18 win over France's Toma Junior Popov.

In a repeat of last week's Indonesia Masters quarter-final, Srikanth again got the better compatriot H S Prannoy.

The former world No. 1 Srikanth, who is coming off two back-to-back semi-final finishes at the Hylo Open and Indonesia Masters, continued his good run of form, winning 21-15, 19-21, 21-12 against Prannoy in 56 minutes.

While Praneeth will next take on Christo Popov of France in the second round, Srikanth will meet the winner of the first round clash between Tokyo Olympics gold medallist second seed Dane Victor Axelsen and Japan's Koki Watanbe.

The mixed doubles pairing of N Sikki Reddy and Dhruv Kapila, however, made a first round exit, falling to the Japanese duo of Kyohei Yamashita and Naru Shinoya, 7-21, 12-21.

It was a bad day in the office for Reddy, who made a first round exit in the women's doubles event as well.

Reddy and veteran shuttler Ashwini Ponnappa went down 27-29, 18-21 to the fifth seeded Bulgarian duo of Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva.