Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu and World Championships silver-winner Kidambi Srikanth advanced to the second round of the USD 180,000 German Open Super 300 badminton tournament here on Tuesday. Seventh seed Sindhu defeated Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-8, 21-7 in a one-sided encounter while eighth seed Srikanth defeated world number 39 Brice Leverdez of France 21-10, 13-21, 21 in 48 minutes. defeated by -7. It was Sindhu’s 15th win over Thailand’s world No 11 while Srikanth made his record 4-0 against Leverdez.
Sindhu will next face Spain’s Beatriz Corrales or China’s Chiang Yi Mann while Srikanth will face China’s Lu Guang Xu. Srikanth’s record against him is 2-0. Srikanth could not play the India Open Super 500 tournament in January due to Corona infection. Indian mixed doubles pair of Sai Prateek K and N Sikki Reddy, however, went down 19-21, 8-21 to top seeds Dechapol Puvaranukroh and Sapsiri Terattanachai of Thailand in the opening round itself.
In women’s singles, Sindhu dominated from the start against Busanan and registered a win in just 32 minutes. Sindhu soon took an 11-4 lead in the first game while there was no looking back after leading 7-5 in the second game. In the men’s singles, Srikanth got off to a good start and quickly took a 19-8 lead and won the first game easily. In the second game, the Frenchman made a comeback but in the deciding game, Srikanth regained the momentum and won.