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Badminton

India Open: Sindhu cruises, Subhankar Dey stages biggest upset

India Open: Sindhu cruises, Subhankar Dey stages biggest upset
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Press Release

Updated: 30 July 2021 4:40 PM GMT

New Delhi: While PV Sindhu had an easy opener, Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy were made to work hard to win their first-round matches at the Yonex-Sunrise India Open 2019, an HSBC BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament, here on Wednesday. Sameer Verma, Sai Praneeth and Riya Mookerjee joined them in Round 2 on a day which saw 7 singles shuttlers and 6 doubles pairs (at the time of filing the report) keeping the tricolour flying high for India.

2017 champion Sindhu made a blazing start to her title challenge with a commanding 21-8, 21-13 win over World No. 71 Mugdha Agrey. The second seed did not have to exert herself much, building a 13-7 lead in the first game. With Sindhu’s powerful smashes doing the talking, the Rio Olympic silver medallist managed to wrap it up in just 23 minutes.

In complete contrast to Sindhu’s match, 2015 winner Srikanth had to claw his way back from a 12-17 deficit in the third game against his 2018 Asian Games conqueror, Wong Wing Ki Vincent. Egged on by the crowd, the World No. 7 displayed his tremendous fighting spirit under pressure to notch up a 21-16, 18-21, 21-19 win in 56 minutes.

“It’s my first time here and I think there is a lot of drift. After losing the lead in the second game, I thought I should not make a single mistake,” said Srikanth, adding, “This is the 6th or 7th time I was playing Wong after the Asian Games. It is tough to play the same opponent many times, but I am happy.”

But Subhankar Dey produced the biggest upset of the Yonex-Sunrise India Open so far, knocking out fourth seed Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto. Unseeded Subhankar ranked 44th in the world, eked out a stunning 14-21 22-20 21-11 triumph over world number 9. "It was a very tough match. Last time I played him in New Zealand was really easy for him. I really played well," said the 25-year-old Subhankar to PTI. "I gained a lot of confidence after the Swiss Open. I played the quarterfinal there. I beat Jonatan Christie. Tommy is the fourth seed and top-10 player, so it is one of my top wins," he added.
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