There was an impressive turnout to witness Rio Olympics silver medallist PV Sindhu at the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold Badminton Championship here on Wednesday.
From the first smash to the last, fans cheered her in the opening-round match at the UP Badminton Academy.
Making her first appearance here after the spirited showing against Carolina Marin in the Rio final, Sindhu took just 21 minutes to knock out Anura Prabhudesai.
The scoreline read 21-9, 21-11, and was enough to indicate the dominance of the world No 6, who tossed the shuttle up, and mixed it with cross-court down-the-line smashes.
Contrary to Sindhu’s encounter, third seed and former Asian Junior Championship bronze-medallist K Srikanth was stretched before winning against fellow Indian Lakhanee Sarang 15-21, 21-7, 21-14 in his first-round match, which lasted over an hour.
The unseeded Sarang surprised the 2014 China Open Super Series Premier champion with his tosses and drops at the net in the first game. The loss in the first game set alarm bells ringing for Srikanth, who then won both the games.
Later, Srikanth was a different man as he took just 22 minutes to brush aside Malaysian Zulkiffli Zulhelmi 21-5, 21-12 to make the pre-quarters.
{{/usCountry}}Later, Srikanth was a different man as he took just 22 minutes to brush aside Malaysian Zulkiffli Zulhelmi 21-5, 21-12 to make the pre-quarters.
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