New Delhi:
Rio Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu notched up an easy victory over Korea's Kim Hyo Min to progress to the pre-quarterfinals of the women's singles competition of the World Championship on Tuesday.
Sindhu dint have to break to much of sweat as she eased past her Korean opponent 21-16, 21-14 in a 49-minute match, to extend her head-to-head record against the Korean to 4-1 in five meetings. The 22-year-old, who received a bye in the opening round, will face either Russian's Evgeniya Kosetskaya or Hong Kong's Cheung Ngan Yi, 13th seed, in the next round.
Sindhu, dominated her opponent from the very start and won eight consecutive points in the first set. Even though Kim Hyo Min fought back to win the next two points, Sindhu continued to maintain the edge by keeping a healthy lead and then later went on to win the first set 21-16. Going into the second set, Kim Hyo Min showed some resistance but Sindhu wrapped up the game up 21-14.
The last time Sindhu had faced Kim, she had suffered a straight-game defeat at 2016 Australian Open and the Indian came out all cylinders blazing today as she dished out a dominating game to zoom to a 8-0 lead in the first game.
In the men's section Singapore Open champion Sai Praneeth made a winning start to his campaign, registering a straight-game win over Hong Kong's Wei Nan to reach the second round of men's singles event.
Praneeth, seeded 15th, came back from behind to overturn a 5-9 and 14-16 deficit in the opening game and 10-13 and 15-17 in the second but fought back to eventually see off Wei Nan 21-18, 21-17 in a 48-minute match.
The 25-year-old from Hyderabad will next take on Indonesia's Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, who is the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic and World Junior Championships boys' singles bronze medallist.
