Fourth seed Sindhu defeated her sixth seeded opponent He Bingjiao of China in three games 21-11, 16-21, 21-18, in a tight contest which lasted 64 minutes. Sindhu started strongly to win the first game 21-11 but lost the second 16-21. With the second game hiccup, Sindhu lost her momentum too and had to bounce back strongly in the third and deciding game to win it 21-18.
With the tough victory, Sindhu started the premier tournament with a win in Group A.
But Srikanth, who won a record four Super Series titles this year, failed to counter the barrage of smashes from Viktor Axelsen of Denmark and lost his opening Group B match 13-21, 17-21. Srikanth, though seeded second, was coming back to action after a long injury break and the lack of match time was on display in the match.
Axelsen, seeded eighth in the tournament, is the current world number one and the defending champion and he showed no mercy to dismantle the Indian’s defence. Although Srikanth had a slender two-point lead, 11-9, at the mid-game break of the first game, it was just an aberration as the Danish came out victorious in just 38 minutes.
Source : timesofindia
