Sindhu advances, Saina bows out of Badminton Asia Championships

TIL Desk Sports/ Rio Olympic silver medallist P.V. Sindhu defeated Dinar Dyah Ayustine of Indonesia to advance while Saina Nehwal bowed out of the Badminton Asia Championships after she was beaten by Japan’s Sayaka Sato in the women’s singles here on Wednesday.

In a relatively lop-sided affair, World No.3 Sindhu outplayed Ayustine 21-8 21-18 in just 31 minutes while the seventh seed Saina, who has two bronze medals from the continent’s marquee event, was prevailed over 21-19, 16-21, 18-21 by her Japanese opponent in a match that lasted over one hour.

In mixed doubles category, it was end of road for Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N.Sikki Reddy as the Indian pair failed to climb the Chinese wall and thus got beaten by Zheng Siwei and Chen Qingchen in the opening round of the tournament.