New Delhi: Indian badminton star PV Sindhu made a triumphant start to her Indonesia Open campaign, overcoming a stiff challenge from Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamarangphan to reach the second round. However, it was a disappointing day for several other Indian shuttlers, including Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen, who crashed out in their opening matches.Sindhu had to dig deep before clinching a 25-23, 21-16 victory in a match that lasted 51 minutes. The two-time Olympic medalist was pushed hard in the first game but managed to hold her nerve at key moments before carrying the momentum into the second game to take the contest to straight games.The former world champion now looks set for a tough second-round clash against reigning Olympic champion and world No. 1 NC Young. Sindhu has struggled against the South Korean star in the past and has a 0-9 head-to-head record against her. The two met recently in the quarter-finals of the Singapore Open, where Anne emerged victorious.While Sindhu thrived, the men’s singles campaign suffered major setbacks. Former World No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth was defeated by Japan’s Yoshi Tanaka 19-21, 15-21. Lakshya Sen, who reached the quarter-finals of the Singapore Open last week, also crashed out after losing 19-21, 16-21 to Indonesia’s Alavi Farhan.In the women’s singles, Malvika Binsud was comfortably defeated by seventh seed Puran Pavi Chochwong of Thailand 21-12, 21-10.There was some good news in the doubles as Hariharan Amsakaronen and MR Arjun advanced to the second round by defeating Malaysia’s Noor Mohd Azrin Ayub and Tan Wei Kyung 21-18, 21-10.However, Teresa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand lost in straight games in the women’s doubles, while the mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Christo were also eliminated by sixth-seeded Chinese rivals Guo Xinwa and Chen Fang Hui.
