Satwiksairaj Rankireddy’s ongoing shoulder injury cut short India’s campaign in the men’s doubles at the Japan Open on Tuesday, as he and Chirag Shetty retired from their opening-round match.
In contrast, P V Sindhu made a confident start to her campaign, cruising into the second round with a straight-game win over Malaysia’s Wong Ling Ching.
The fourth-seeded Indian duo, who ended a two-year title drought by winning the Singapore Open earlier this season, were forced to withdraw after losing the opening game 19-21 to Denmark’s Daniel Lundgaard and Mads Vestergaard. The pair had also pulled out of the Indonesia Open last month due to Satwik’s shoulder issue.
India’s chief doubles coach Tan Kim Her confirmed that Satwik and Chirag will skip next week’s China Open as they focus on regaining full fitness ahead of the BWF World Championships, which will be held in India in August.
“It still needs some time to recover. We have at least four weeks to get back in shape ahead of World Championships,” Tan told PTI.
Meanwhile, two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu enjoyed a comfortable outing against world No. 37 Wong, winning 21-14, 21-11 to book her place in the second round of the BWF Super 750 event.
Sindhu looked in control from the very beginning, taking charge of the rallies to open up a 7-4 lead. Wong struggled to keep pace as couple of errors helped the Indian extend her advantage to 11-6 at the mid-game interval.
The former world champion mixed aggressive smashes with delicate net play, stretching the lead to 14-9. Although she made a few unforced mistakes, but Wong failed to capitalise, as she wrapped up the opening game.
The Indian continued her dominance after the break, racing to an 8-2 lead before taking an 11-3 cushion into the interval. Wong found it difficult to match Sindhu’s consistency as the lead grew to 16-5.
The Malaysian briefly reduced the lead with three successive points, but Sindhu quickly regained control, while, Wong eventually hit a smash into the net to hand the Indian 10 match points.
Sindhu missed the first before Wong found the net again, sealing a convincing straight-games victory for the Indian.
Meanwhile, India’s mixed doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto also progressed after defeating Scotland’s Alexander Dunn and Julie Macpherson 21-16, 21-14.
However, Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde bowed out in the opening round after a 11-21, 10-21 defeat to China’s top-seeded combination of Feng Yan Zhe and Huang Dong Ping.
Later on Tuesday, Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun were scheduled to face Chinese Taipei’s Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan in the men’s doubles opening round.