Sindhu advances to pre-quarterfinals of Singapore Open

Rio Olympic silver-medalist PV Sindhu produced a spirited fight back as she swept aside Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in a three-game thriller to advance to the pre-quarterfinals of Singapore Open Superseries tournament here on Wednesday.

After going down in the first game, fifth-seed Sindhu rebounded strongly to register a 10-21, 21-15, 22-20 win over Okuhara 10-21, 21-15, 22-20 in an opening-round clash that lasted more than one hour .

Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal is not taking part in the competition, while the other Indian in the women's singles, Rituparna Das, bowed out earlier today.

In the men's singles event, Sai Praneeth also made it to the pre-quarterfinals after beating Emil Holst of Denmark 17-21, 21-7, 21-19.

However, Sourabh Verma and Sameer Verma crashed out after going down in their respective matches.

While Sameer slumped to a 26-28, 21-23 defeat to HU Yun of Hong Kong, Sourabh suffered a 15-21, 14-21 loss against Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.