PV Sindhu registered a convincing victory over local player Gregoria Mariska Tunjung to advance to the second round of the women's singles event in the Indonesia Open 2023 at the Istora Senayan sports arena in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Sindhu, ranked 13th in the BWF world rankings, triumphed 21-19, 21-15 in straight games to snap her two-match losing streak against the 9th-ranked Indonesian opponent, who had previously defeated her in the semi-finals of the Malaysia Masters and denied her the Madrid Spain Masters title.
It was a closely contested match and with the first game tied at 14-all, Sindhu raised her level to win five consecutive points to get her nose in front. However, in the second game, Sindhu dominated Tunjung, to march to a comfortable victory.
The ace Indian shuttler is now set to face the defending champion and world No. 3, Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei, in the second round.
In the men's singles event, India's HS Prannoy, ranked 8th, defeated Japan's 11th-ranked Kenta Nishimoto 21-16, 21-14 in the opening round of the prestigious BWF World Tour Super 1000 event.
Prannoy's next opponent will be world No. 16 Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong, who caused an upset by eliminating two-time world champion Kento Momota of Japan in the first round.
However, there were disappointments in the doubles events for the Indian contingent. In the women's doubles, the Indian pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand suffered a close defeat, losing 22-20, 12-21, 16-21 to Japan's Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi in their opening match. This marked their fourth consecutive first-round loss in BWF World Tour tournaments this season.
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On a positive note, in the men's doubles, India's Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy advanced to the second round after their French opponents, Christo and Toma Junior Popov, were forced to retire from the match. The Indian pair was leading 21-12, 11-7 when Toma sustained a knee injury.
However, another Indian men's doubles team, MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila, was eliminated in a fiercely fought match against Malaysia's Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi. The Indian duo put up a valiant fight but eventually succumbed to a 21-12, 6-21, 20-22 defeat against the world No. 7 pair, who are also former world championship medallists.