Badminton Asia Championships: HS Prannoy, Satwik-Chirag march ahead with straight-set wins in first round

Star Indian shuttler HS Prannoy and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty began with easy wins to advance into the pre-quarterfinals of the Asia Badminton Championship on Wednesday.

HS Prannoy went past Myanmar’s Phone Pyae Naing 21-14, 21-9 in the men’s singles while Satwik-Chirag defeated Malaysia’s Tan Kian Meng & Tan Wee Kiong 21-14, 21-17 in the men’s doubles at the Asia Badminton Championships.

Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, the bronze medalists in women’s doubles at the Commonwealth Games, also advanced to the last-16.

Former world champion PV Sindhu defeated Wen Chi Hsu 21-15, 22-20 in a 46-minute match in the women’s singles after finishing runner-up at the Madrid Spain Masters.

In the first game, trailing 11-14, the world No. 11 Indian, who is on a comeback after a long injury layoff, reeled off nine points in a row to take the lead.

The Taipei shuttler fought hard in the second game, but Sindhu led 11-7 at the break before sealing the deal.

In the pre-quarters, Sindhu will face China’s World No. 9 Han Yue.

Former World Championship silver medalist Kidambi Srikanth took 25 minutes to see off his first-round opponent Adnan Ebrahim 21-13 21-8. He will face world No 5 Kodai Naraoka in the men’s singles last-16.

Treesa-Gayatri secure comeback win

In a battle that lasted more than an hour, Treesa and Gayatri came from behind to defeat Indonesia’s Lanny Tria Mayasari and Ribka Sugiarto 17-21, 21-17, 21-18. After a tame first game, the Indian duo put on a dominant performance in the second and took a 5-0 lead. They kept their lead throughout the game to force a decider.

The third game was a tense battle, with Treesa and Gayatri trailing the Indonesian pair 15-16.