Leading India shutter PV Sindhu entered the second round after defeating Julie Dawall Jakobsen of Denmark in straight games to advance to the women's singles pre-quarterfinals of the China Masters Super 750 badminton tournament on Wednesday.
Ayush Shetty fought hard, but lost the men's singles opening-round match to World No. 5 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei 19-21 21-12 16-21 in 68 minutes, while the mixed doubles pair of Ruthvika Gadde and Rohan Kapoor also bowed out after a 17-21 11-21 defeat to Yuichi Shimogami and Sayaka Hobara of Japan.
Two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu took just 27 minutes to vanquish Jakobsen 21-4 21-10. Her win comes less than 10 days after her opening-round loss in the Hong Kong Open Super 500 tournament, where she was defeated by another Dane, Line Christophersen.
Also read: Sindhu exits, Prannoy, Sen advance to pre-quarters
Sindhu, who has suffered six first-round exits on the BWF World Tour this year with the latest being the Hong Kong Open, was in remarkable form as she raced to a substantial lead in no time and finished the opening game in slightly over 10 minutes.
The impressive showing continued in the second game as well with Sindhu, who had beaten the Dane in two previous occasions as well, taking a three-point lead at 4-1 before Jakobsen made it 4-4. Thereafter, Sindhu displayed her experience and superior technique to finish off the challenge. She won six straight points to jump from 11-8 to 17-8 before sealing the contest. Jakobsen had given a tough fight to Sindhu when the two had met the last time in the opening round of the Yonex Swiss Open in March.
Shetty fought valiantly, but Chen won the decider with ease, making it a hat-trick of losses for the Indian against the Chinese Taipei shuttler this year. Chen, who has beaten Shetty in the semifinals of the Taipei and US Open this year, kept fighting despite the Indian clawing back to take the second game.
After a tough fight, which saw both players tied at 13-13 in the deciding game, Chen upped his game several notches to open up a four-point lead at 17-13, and then went on to tame Shetty, who had lost to compatriot Lakshya Sen in the Hong Kong Open quarterfinals.
However, there was some consolation for Shetty as he climbed to a career-best BWF ranking of 27 following his quarterfinal finish in Hong Kong, where he had also beaten World No. 9 Kodai Naraoka of Japan.
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