Fright for Kidambi before the fight

HYDERABAD: Third seed Kidambi Srikanth survived a mid-game slump to beat Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam 21-18, 19-21, 21-14 in the first round of the Singapore Open Super Series on Wednesday. Srikanth's practice partners Parupalli Kashyap and HS Prannoy will join him in the men's singles second round while Gurusaidutt and Sai Praneeth crashed out of the tournament.
While Kashyap made short work of Lee Hyun Il of Korea 21-11, 21-13, Prannoy had it easy against Wong Wing Ki Vincent of Hong Kong 21-15, 21-17.Kashyap will now face fourth seed Wan Ho So of Korea, who battled past Guru 16-21, 2112, 21-15, in the second round on Thursday. The World No.17 Indian has lost twice to World No.5 Korean in the past. Prannoy will once again face World No.2 Jan O Jorgensen of Denmark. Interestingly, Prannoy has defeated the Dane twice.
However, the manner in which Srikanth struggled against Nguyen was a bit surprising. With the pull out of Saina, the Swiss Open champion is India's best bet at the event. However, Srikanth found it difficult to adjust to the court in Singapore. The drift troubled him right throughout the match. In the first game, Nguyen did not give any easy points till 16-15 before Srikanth widened the gap with a fourpoint burst. He lost momentum in the second game and found it difficult to keep pace with his rival.
Srikanth, though, found his rhythm in the decider. He found his range and got good control over the bird. The China Open champion was comfortably ahead at 11-5 at the mandatory change of courts. Though Nguyen made a serious effort and came as close at 16 13, Srikanth was hardly threatened. With this victory Srikanth avenged his last year's second round defeat against Nguyen at the same venue. Despite Srikanth being stretched to three games, coach Pullela Gopichand believes that his ward played well on Wednesday. "He played well. There is a lot of of drift on the court so it was a bit tough to control," Gopi told ToI from Singapore City.
Commonwealth Games silver medallists Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa defeated higher ranked Koreans, Go Ah Ra and Yoo Hae Won 21-12, 21-16. The Indians will now square up against Chinese third seeds Xiaoli Wang and Yang Yu in the second round. Jwala-Ashwini have lost thrice to the Chinese pair in the past.
Results: Men's singles (Rd I): Parupalli Kashyap bt Lee Hyun Il (Kor) 21-11, 21-13; 4-Wan Ho So (Kor) bt RMV Gurusaidutt 1621, 21-12, 21-15; HS Prannoy bt Wong Wing Ki Vincent (Hkg) 21-15, 21-17; 3-Kidambi Srikanth bt Tien Minh Nguyen (Vie) 21-18, 19-21, 21-14; 2-Jan O Jorgensen (Den) bt Sai Praneeth 21-11, 21-18.Men's doubles: 1-Yong Dae LeeYeon Seong Yoo (Kor) bt Pranaav Jerry Chopra Akshay Dewalkar 23-21, 21-11.Women's singles (Rd I): Line Kjaersfeldt (Den) bt PC Thulasi 21-16, 21-14.Women's doubles: Jwala GuttaAshwini Ponnappa bt Go Ah RaYoo Hae Won (Kor) 21-12, 21-16; Jongkonphan Kittiharakul Rawinda Prajongjai (Tha) bt Dhanya Nair Mohita Sahdev 21-8, 21-8; Pia Zebadiah BernadethRizki Amelia Pradipta (Ina) bt Sikki ReddyPradnya Gadre 21-17, 21-13.Mixed doubles: 5-Sung Hyun KoHa Na Kim (Kor) bt Tarun KonaSikki Reddy 2115, 21-17;