Sindhu, Sai Praneeth advance at Singapore Open

Singapore, April 13: Star Indian shuttler P.V. Sindhu defeated Fitriani Fitriani of Indonesia to advance in the Singapore Open Superseries badminton tournament here on Thursday.

The fifth seeded Sindhu lost the first game before staging a superb comeback to win 19-21, 21-17, 21-8 in a contest that lasted around one hour.

Sindhu started the proceeding on a good note but soon Fitriani started the counter attack at the end and a a result the Hyderabadi shuttler was prevailed over in the first game.

The second and third game saw Sindhu at her best. She displayed some swift court movements and strokes to edged past her opponent.

Sindhu will now take on Spain's Carolina Marin, whom she defeated in the summit clash of the India Open this month. 

Among other Indians in the fray, B. Sai Praneeth defeated Qiao Bin of China to enter the third round of the competition.

The Chinese shuttler gave a tough fight before surrendering the match 15-21, 23-21, 16-21 in one hour 13 minutes.

In mixed doubles category, B. Sumeeth Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa defeated Jae Hwan Kim and Lee So Hee of Korea 17-21, 21-17, 21-16 in 54 minutes to advance.    

But in women's doubles category, it was an end of the road for Ponnappa and N. Sikki Reddy as the Indian duo were defeated by Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi of Japan 21-11, 19-21, 21-12.