By Harpal Singh Bedi
Jakarta, Aug 23 (UNI) World number 3 PV Sindhu survived a massive scare before overcoming spirited Vietnamese Vu Thi Trang while Saina Nehwal toyed with over Iran’s Soraya Aghhajiagha to move into women’s singles second round at the 18th Asian Games, here on Thursday.
Sindhu was surprised by the resistance offered by world ranked 52 Trang.The Indian huffed and puffed before ousting her determined rival 21-10 12-21 23-21 in 58 minutes.
Later Saina faced no resistance at all from Soraya Aghhajiagha whom she dismissed g 21-7 21-9 in just 26 minutes.
In other matches, Ashwini Ponappa and N Sikki Reddy advanced in the women’s doubles with 21-16 21-15 win over Hong Kong’s Ng Wing Yung and Yeung Nga Ting. While Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, overwhelmed Hong Kong’s Yonny Chung and Chun Hei Tam 21-12 21-14 in men’s doubles.
However it was curtains for for Rutaparna Panda and Arathi Sunil, who lost 11-21 6-21 to Thailand’s Chayanti Chaladchalam and Phataimas Muenwong in women’s doubles.
After sharing the first two games, the decider between Sindhu and Trang turned out to be tense affair. The Indian looked tentative committing many a unforced errors.
Sindhu who had built up a small lead in the third game, lost it when Vietnamese rallied strongly to make it 9-9.
After change of ends, Sindhu showed better control over shots to make it 16-12 but then she lost three points in a row. The contest became tense as score was levelled at 19-19.
Sindhu again had a match point at 21-20 and smashed one hard on the left of Trang but it was marginally out.
She had her third match point when Trang’s shot found the net and this time Sindhu sealed it with a smash, which her opponent could not return.
Talking about her match Sindhu admitted that it was a tough contest for her “I was playing her for the first time but I never thought it will be an easy match. She did well.”
“I did not take it easy but that was a very good match. It was anybody’s game, each point was important. I was making too many errors. She was not leaving any shuttle. It was not allowing me to attack. There was drift here and there but we have to manage.”
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