New Delhi, Jan 16: Former champion P.V. Sindhu rekindled memories of her old aggressive self while up-and-coming Kiran George kept his nerves under pressure to register straight games win while the men’s doubles combination of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty came back from a game down to advance to the quarterfinals of the India Open 2025, a BWF World Tour Super 750 event, at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall here on Thursday.

Sindhu, playing only her second tournament since the Paris Olympics, hammered Japan’s Manami Suizu 21-15, 21-13 while George defeated Frenchman Alex Lanier 22-20, 21-13 in the men’s singles second-round clash. Later in the day, the 2022 champions Satwik/Chirag had to regroup after losing the first game to beat Japan’s Kenya Mitsuhashi/Hiroki Okamura 20-22, 21-14, 21-16.

Among the other top players in the fray, last edition runners-up Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong had to save a match point in the decider against Toma Junior Popov before winning the one hour 16 minutes clash 14-21, 21-18, 22-20 to advance to the quarterfinals. While that match kept the fans on the edge of their seats, Sindhu and George gave them enough reasons to celebrate.

Having spent over six months on the sidelines, Sindhu had looked rusty in the opening match against Shuo Yun Sung of Chinese Taipei in the opening round. But the former world champion played aggressively against Suizu by going for winners from both sides of the court.

After the initial exchanges, Sindhu raced to a 13-6 lead in the opening game and though Suizu narrowed the gap to 14-13, the Indian star always looked in control and she again opened a big gap. The second game saw complete domination of Sindhu, who found cross-court winners at will.

“After a break, what I liked about my game today was my movement and my attacks were working well. Moving forward, I need to be ready for anything because matches will get harder,” said Sindhu, who will now face Indonesian fourth seed Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, who defeated another Japanese Natsuki Nadaira 21-12, 24-22 in the other second round clash.

Earlier, George saved six game-points against Lanier in the opening game. The 24-year-old, who got a last-minute entry into the competition from the reserves list, looked out of sorts as the Frenchman attacked precisely in the opening game.

Lanier raced to a 20-14 lead in the opening game before Kiran staged an improbable comeback, winning eight straight points to pocket the game 22-20. At that stage, he simply kept the shuttle in play long enough for his opponent to make a mistake and the errors began coming thick and fast for the Frenchman as the Indian started closing in.

“At 14-20, I was just taking it one point at a time, not thinking about the lead, whether I'm trailing. I was just playing one point at a time. I think that helped me to secure the game,” said George after the win.

He will now face China’s Weng Hongyang, who got the better of Malaysia’s Jun Hao Leong 21-18, 21-12 in the other second-round clash.

It looked like Satwik and Chirag would also take a straight games route to the Round of 8 when they opened up an 18-14 lead and had a game-point at 20-19 but could not convert it and lost the opening game. But that blip did not prove costly as the Indian duo quickly took control of the action in the second game and then maintained his advantage to win in one hour and 11 minutes.

It was not a fruitful day for the other Indian contenders in the fray with the women’s doubles combination of Ashwini Ponnappa/Tanisha Crasto, Rutuparna Panda/Swetaparna Panda, and mixed doubles pairs of Dhruv Kapila/Tanisha and Ashith Surya/Amrutha Pramuthesh getting knocked out in the second round.

Dhruv and Tanisha played their hearts out against eighth seeds Hiroki Midorikawa and Natsu Saito of Japan but ended on the losing end of the 21-18, 21-17 score-line. Later Tanisha and Ashwini also had a mixed day in office as they lost 9-21, 21-23 against Japan’s Yuki Fukushima and Mayu Matsumoto.

--IANS

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