Saina Nehwal advanced to the second round with an easy win, but it turned out to be a disappointing day for the Indians overall as Parupalli Kashyap and P.V. Sindhu failed to cross the first hurdle in the Hong Kong Super Series in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
Looking for her first title of the season, world number seven Saina didn’t break much sweat as she outplayed Indonesia’s Bellaetrix Manuputty 21-14, 21-16 in a 34-minute women’s singles match.
The 23-year-old Indian will next take on Thailand’s Porntip Buranaprasertsuk on Thursday.
However, it was curtains for Sindhu and Kashyap in the opening round of the $350,000 event, the last Super Series of the season.
World number 10 Sindhu lost 16-21,17-21 to second seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in another women’s singles match, while Kashyap suffered a 14-21,10-21 defeat at the hands of China’s Zhengming Wang in men’s singles competition.
Rising shuttler K. Srikanth also crashed out in the opening round of men’s singles after going down 18-21,14-21 to world number one Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia.
India’s men’s doubles pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar, too, suffered a similar fate as the duo lost 18-21,19-21 to top seeded Indonesian combo of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan.
