Rio de Janeiro: Reigning bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal and two-time World Championship bronze medallist P.V. Sindhu were the only bright spots on an otherwise dismal day for Indian shuttlers at the Rio Olympics here on Thursday. Saina defeated a spirited Brazilian shuttler, Lohaynny Vicente, in straight sets 21-17, 21-17 in a match that lasted 39 minutes.
Earlier, ninth seed Sindhu defeated Laura Sarosi of Hungary in the women’s singles competition 21-8, 21-9 in a Group ‘M’ match that lasted 27 minutes. She will play against Glasgow Commonwealth Games champion Li Michelle of Canada on August 14 to complete the preliminary group engagements. Sindhu didn’t break any sweat against her World No. 64 rival as she took 13 and 14 minutes to wrap up the first and second games with ease.
Earlier, the Indian combination of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa were off to a disappointing start in the women’s doubles event, losing 15-21, 10-21 to the World No.1 Japanese pair of Ayaka Takahashi and Misaki Matsumoto in a match which lasted 36 minutes in their Group ‘A’ opener. The Indians will next be up against the world No.11 Dutch pair of Eefje Muskens and Selena Piek in their second group clash on Friday.
In the men’s doubles, Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy lost 18-21, 13-21 to World No.2 Indonesian duo of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. Jwala and Ashwini opened a 4-1 lead but ended up blowing it away in no time after the Japanese pair put across some targetted deep returns which the Indians failed to judge. The world No.1s, in contrast, were quick on their feet and returned everything that the Indians threw at them. Jwala and Ashwini, who were struggling to coordinate their moves, trailed 8-11 at the first lemon break and could not bridge the gap.
The Japanese pair produced a couple of brilliant winners — a backhand flick down the line by Matsumoto being particularly impressive — to wrap up the opening game in 19 minutes without breaking much of a sweat. The second game followed a similar script.
