Indian shuttling icons PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth registered winning starts at the ongoing German Open Super 300 badminton tournament, earning their berths into the second round of the USD 180,000 tournament which is taking place in Mülheim an der Ruhr in Germany, commencing from 8th March onwards.
Sindhu dominates Busanan Ongbamrungphan while Srikanth defeats Brice Leverdez
Sindhu, the two time Olympics medallist who is seeded 7th at the tournament, sparkled in her performance against Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand in a one-sided affair that ended in 21-8, 21-7 straight sets. The Indian shuttler marked her 15th victory over world no 11 Busanan throughout her 32-minutes of domination.
Right from the start, Sindhu took the head to 11-4, with Busanan posing little threat against her rival. The second set also saw the 26-year-old from Hyderabad zooming to victory from a 7-5 advantage. The 2016 Rio silver and 2020 Tokyo bronze medallist will not take on Beatriz Corrales of Spain or Zhang Yi Man of China in the next round.
8th seed Srikanth, on the other hand, defeated World no 39 Brice Leverdez 21-10, 13-21, 21-7 in an exciting 48 minutes match, taking his head to head record against the Frenchman to 4-0.
Srikanth turned a 6-6 scoreline in the first set to a swift 19-8 lead. Leverdez did make his efforts in the second set, keeping his lead till the end to even the odds, but in the decider, it was Srikanth who prevailed.
The former world no 1, who missed out India Open Super 500 event in January after contracting COVID-19, will now meet world no 27 Lu Guang Zu, the Chinese shuttler against whom Srikanth has a 2-0 head to head record.
However, the Indian contingent didn’t have its best of days in the mixed doubles category. The duo of Sai Pratheek K and N Sikki Reddy suffered a defeat against top seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai, going down 19-21, 8-21 against the Thai duo.
Highlights:
- PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth earned victories in their opening matches at the German Open Super 300 badminton tournament
- Sindhu dominated her rival Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-8, 21-7, while Srikanth defeated Brice Leverdez 21-10, 13-21, 21-7
Do you want to play Casino games online? Click here to find a range of online casino brands
Place your bets for the matches here.
If you like reading about MMA, make sure you check out MMAIndia.com
Also, follow India’s biggest arm wrestling tournament at ProPanja.com
To bet on sports, click here
