China Open: PV Sindhu struggles, but makes it to quarter-finals

PV Sindhu

Fuzhou (China): Olympic silver-medallist PV Sindhu and male singles shuttler Ajay Jayaram advanced to the quarter-finals after registering thrilling three-game wins over their respective opponents in the second round of the USD 700,000 China Super Series Premier, here yesterday. Seventh seeded Sindhu survived a scare from USA's Beiwen Zhang before notching up a 18-21, 22-20, 21-17 victory in a women's singles match that lasted an hour here. The Indian will next take on China's He Bingjiao, against whom she had lost in the second round of the French Open last month.

Not easy for Jayram too
Jayaram too had to work hard to surpass Wei Nan as he notched up a 20-22, 21-19, 21-12 win over the Hong Kong shuttler in a 56-minute clash.

The three-time Dutch Open champion, Jayaram will face reigning Olympic champion and two-time World champion and All England champion Chen Long of China in the next round.

However, it was curtains for Swiss Open winner HS Prannoy after he suffered a 17-21, 19-21 loss to Qiao Bin of China in another men's singles match. B Sai Praneeth had lost his opening round match 16-21, 9-21 against Marc Zwiebler of Germany.

Sindhu blows away lead
Sindhu blew away a 11-7 lead at the break to allow Zhang comeback and level the scores at 13-13. The American soon moved to a 15-13 and 18-15 lead before reeling off the last three points in to pocket the first game.

In the second game, Sindhu once again zoomed to a 8-0 lead but once again she squandered the advantage as Zhang clawed back to first level the scores at 16-16. She soon lead 19-17 but the Indian ensured there was no hiccup this time as she roared back into the contest.

In the decider, Sindhu held a slender 8-6 lead and then broke off at 9-9 to never look back.

It was a tough battle for supremacy as Jayaram's gallant fight in the opening game ended with a narrow loss after he and Wei moved neck and neck from 11-11 to 20-20.