Asian Games: Sindhu, Prannoy advance to Round of 16; easy win for women’s doubles pairs too

Hangzhou: India’s best hopes in the badminton individual competitions, PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy cruised into Round of 16 at the 19th Asian Games, here on Tuesday.

Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu, who got a bye in the first round, needed 42 minutes to defeat Wen-Chi Hsu of Chinese Taipei 21-10, 21-15 in a Round of 32 match played at the Binjiang Gymnasium here.

Sindhu, who won a silver in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and a bronze in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, will next play Wardani Putri Kusuma of Indonesia, who defeated Hong Kong China’s Liang Ka Wing 21-11, 21-10 in another preliminary round match.

Prannoy, who seems to have recovered from the niggle that kept him out of the Team final against China, cruised past Batdavaa Munkhbat of Mongolia 21-9, 21-12 in just 26 minutes.

In the first game, Prannoy broke away from 7-7 to win the next 10 points before the Mongolian player won his 8th point of the game. Prannoy went on to win the game 21-9.

Prannoy took an early lead in the second game too and maintained the advantage as he was not much tested by the lower-ranked Mongolian player.

Among other Indians, Asmita Chaliha went down to Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska Tunjung 17-21, 16-21 in a women’s singles Round of 32 match.

The women’s doubles pairs of Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand and Tanisha Crasto/Ashwini Ponnappa advanced to the next round getting past pairs from Maldives.

Treesa and Gayatri beat Abdul Razzaq Aminath Nabeeha/Abdul Razzaq Fathimath Nabeeha 21-14, 21-12 while Tanisha and Ashwini made it to the next round when their opponents Maisa Fathuhulla Ismail and Aishath Afnaan Rasheed retired while trailing 2-21, 2-12.