India Open 2025: Sindhu, George enjoy commanding wins; Sat-Chi pulls off comeback victory
India Open 2025: Sindhu, George enjoy commanding wins; Sat-Chi pulls off comeback victory
In her first-round match, P. V. Sindhu was a diva turning up to put on a show.
On Thursday, it was all business as the Indian, all focus and sans all the adornment, made light work of Manami Suizu in the second round to lead the Indian charge into the quarterfinals of the India Open badminton tournament at the Indira Gandhi Stadium here.
The disappointment of first-round exits among the Indian men was offset not just by Sindhu’s dominating win but also by Kiran George’s impressive run in the competition and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty’s (Sat-Chi’s) comeback victory to stay on course to go one better on their runners-up performance last year.
Former champion Sindhu showed signs of her old aggressive self, taking control of the match from the word go and not allowing Manami any space to either play her shots or recover from the barrage of smashes.
While she managed the semblance of a fight in the first game, there was little Manami could do in the second, with Sindhu leading by a massive 11 points at one stage.
Playing only her second tournament since the Paris Olympics, Sindhu thrashed her Japanese opponent 21-15, 21-13 in 45 minutes to advance into the last eight, setting up a clash against Grigoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia.
Sat-Chi, however, had a little stutter losing the opening game against the Japanese pair of Kenya Mitsuhashi and Hiroki Okamura before regrouping to completely outplay their opponents in the next two to wrap up 20-22, 21-14, 21-16 in 72 minutes.
The back-court body smashes down the middle and forcing the Japanese to err at the net with soft drops was a delight to watch.
“We should have wrapped it up in straight games like last year (at the Asia Team Championships) but we made some easy errors and allowed them to win but a win is a win,” the 2022 champions admitted.
Kiran, meanwhile, continued his dream run with a 22-20, 21-13 win against Frenchman Alex Lanier in the Super 750 event, saving six game points and reeling off eight straight to go from 14-20 to 22-20 in the opening game. He will be up against Hong Yang Weng of China next.
