Hong Kong, Nov 19: India's young shuttler Kidambi Srikanth, who created history on Sunday (November 16) by winning the China Open Super Series badminton title, started off his campaign at Hong Kong Open by upsetting a world's top-10 player here today.
Later in the day, in the women's singles, India's third seed Saina Nehwal, who also bagged the China Open title, needed just 27 minutes to beat unseeded Jamie Subandhi of United States 21-17 21-11 in her campaign opener.
Srikanth had beaten former World number 1 and 2-time Olympic champion Lin Dan of China to win the trophy on Sunday. The 21-year-old from Hyderabad today stunned World number 8 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in the men's singles after a battle of 66 minutes at the Hong Kong Coliseum.
After losing the first game 18-21, unseeded Srikanth bounced back to take the next two 22-20, 21-16 against the 7th seed and entered the second round in Hong Kong. Srikanth is coached by Pullella Gopichand and had 'gifted' his China Open win to his 'guru'.
In the women's doubles, India's Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa lost to Yin Loo Lim and Meng Yean Lee of Malaysia 21-16, 14-21, 21-23 in 55 minutes in the opening round. Jwala and Ashwini won the first game but lost the next two to the Malaysian pair to crash out of the tournament.
Earlier, India's 19-year-old PV Sindhu defeated Busanan Ongbumrungpan of Thailand 21-15, 16-21, 21-19 in the women's singles.
World number 10 Sindhu, who is the 7th seed here, started off well taking the first game but her Thai opponent rallied in the second to take the match into the decider.
The third and final game was a tough one and Sindhu prevailed with a 21-19 score. The match lasted 52 minutes. With this Sindhu made it 3-0 against Busanan in the head-to-head record.
The $350,000 tournament runs till November 23, Sunday.
OneIndia News