Hong Kong Open: Sindhu survives a scare to enter pre-quarterfinals

Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu on Wednesday defeated Thailand's Nitchaon Jindapol to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the ongoing Hong Kong World Tour Super 500 tournament.

The 23-year-old survived a scare as she fought her way with 21-15, 13-21, 21-17 win over her Thailand counterpart.

Sindhu started her campaign with an easy first game but she went down in the second as her Thai opponent made a comeback. However, she refreshed her energy and knocked out Jindapol in the decider.

With six consecutive points, Sindhu dominated Jindapol, who could only bag four consecutive points overall in the women's singles game. The World number three also secured 55 rallies, while World number fourteen could gain only 53 of them.

After stamping her authority in the match that lasted an hour, Sindhu will face World number ten Sung Ji-Hyun of South Korea in the main draw tomorrow.

In men's singles event, Indian campaigner Verma hardly broke a sweat to conquer Suppanyu Avihingsanon of Thailand in straight games that lasted 40 minutes.

Verma, who won 42 rallies and five consecutive points, raced ahead of his Thai opponent, who won 31 rallies and 4 consecutive points, in both the games and registered a convincing 21-17, 21-14 win to play the main draw.

Meanwhile, in another men's singles event, Praneeth suffered a 21-16, 11-21, 15-21 defeat from Khosit Phetpradab of Thailand in the round-of-32 match that lasted an hour.

Both the shuttlers equally won five consecutive points each, however, Praneeth won only 47 rallies, while Phetpradab won 58 of them.

In women's doubles event, the Indian pair of Ashwini Ponnappa-Sikki Reddy were also knocked out by Japanese pair of Misaki Matsutomo- Ayaka Takahashi in a game that turned into one-sided after first game 21-18, 10-21, 8-21 that last almost an hour.

The Indian campaigners, who won five consecutive points and 39 rallies, were shown doors by their Japanese opponents, who won six consecutive points and 60 rallies in their overall game.