PV Sindhu Sails Into The Second Round Of Japan Open; Satwik-Chirag Pair Pulls Out

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy's recurring shoulder problem forced him and Chirag Shetty to retire from their Japan Open opener even as P V Sindhu eased into the women's singles second round with a straight-game win over Malaysia's Wong Ling Ching on Tuesday.

The world No.4 Indian pair, who ended a two-year title drought by winning the Singapore Open but had to withdraw from Indonesia Open last month, retired after losing the opening game 19-21 to Denmark's Daniel Lundgaard and Mads Vestergaard.

Chief doubles coach Tan Kim Her said the Indian duo will be skipping the China Open next week and focus on rehabilitation to get back to shape for the home World Championships in August.

"It still needs some time to recover. We have at least four weeks to get back in shape ahead of World Championships," Tan told PTI.

Two-time Olympic-medallist Sindhu, who is currently world no. 10, produced a compact performance to notch up a 21-14 21-11 win over 37th-ranked Wong Ling Ching of Malaysia in the opening round of the BWF Super 750 event.

India's Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto too advanced to the second round after defeating Scotland's Alexander Dunn and Julie Macpherson 21-16, 21-14 in their mixed doubles opener.

However, Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde bowed out in the opening round after losing 11-21, 10-21 to top seeds Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping of China.

Sindhu vs Wong

Sindhu controlled the proceedings from the outset, dictating the pace of the rallies to open up a 7-4 lead. Although Wong attempted to stay in touch, her unforced errors allowed the Indian to steadily pull away and take an 11-6 advantage at the mid-game interval.

The Indian ace looked comfortable in the rallies, mixing up her strokes effectively to extend her lead to 14-9. Her backhand net dribbles, deft drops and well-disguised half-smashes came off with precision.

While there were stray errors, including a long toss and a wide cross-court net shot from the Indian, Wong failed to make the most of those opportunities.

A straight smash earned Sindhu seven game points, and she wrapped up the opening game in the second attempt.

Sindhu resumed in similar fashion after the change of ends, racing to an 8-2 lead before taking an 11-3 cushion at the interval.

The gap only widened thereafter as Wong continued to struggle with her accuracy, allowing Sindhu to surge to a 16-5 lead. The Malaysian briefly strung together three points before another error handed the initiative back to the Indian.

A smash into the net from Wong gave Sindhu 10 match points. The Indian squandered the first with a long return before Wong found the net on the next point to hand Sindhu a comfortable straight-game victory.

Later in the day, Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun will face Chinese Taipei's Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan in another men's doubles match.