PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy shine on a gloomy day at Badminton Asia C'Ships

Ace Indian shuttlers PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy confirmed their place in pre quarters of the Badminton Asia Championships after winning their respective first-round matches at Badminton Asia Championships in Ningbo, China on Wednesday.

Sindhu took a hard-fought three-game victory (18-21, 21-14, 21-19) against Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia in a 64-minute battle. She started the match very casually with few freebies outside the sidelines but then recovered to close the deficit to 2 points at the mid-game break.

Goh maintained her two-point lead throughout the game with her low drop shots and clinched the first game 21-18 to gain an early advantage in the match. Sindhu bounced back brilliantly in the second game with her hard-attacking game.

The match went into a decider which was very closely poised till the final mid-game break but then the exhausted Goh Jin Wei made a few unforced errors and Sindhu reached five game point opportunities.

Goh saved four match points as Sindhu became impatient to clinch the match and made a few errors but on the final match point, Goh's return went into the net and Sindhu triumphed.

HS Prannoy secured the second victory for India on the day as he clinched a very close three-game match (17-21, 23-23-21) against Lu Guang Zu of China. He made a terrific comeback from 5-11 down in the decider to clinch the game and a place in the second round.

Other top singles player, Kidambi Srikanth, Lakshya Sen, and Priyanshu Rajawat lost their respective first-round matches. Kidambi goes down to world no.3, Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in straight games, 14-21, 13-21.

Lakshya Sen fought bravely against the top-seeded Shi Yuqi of China but went down in the straight game (19-21, 15-21) to suffer a first-round exit while Priyanshu Rajawat was hammered by Lee Zii Jia, 9-21, 13-21.

The women's doubles pairing of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand had an unforgettable game as they lost very easily (2-21, 11-21) to the Chinese pair of Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning. With this loss, their dreams of Paris Olympics qualification are over.

On the other hand in men's doubles, India's no.2 pairing of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila showed a great fight but lost a very close hard fought three-game (21-23, 21-19, 24-26) match to the seventh-seeded Chinese pairing of Liu Ou Chen and Ou Xuan Yi.