Sindhu sweats, Saina Nehwal soars

Jakarta: PV Sindhu had to dig deep to down a fighting Vu Thi Trang of Vietnam but Saina Nehwal did not break any sweat as India' top two shuttlers advanced to the women's singles second round at the 18th Asian Games, here on Thursday.

World Championship silver medallist Sindhu faced stiff resistance from world number 52 Trang before prevailing 21-10 12-21 23-21 in a tough opening round which lasted 58 minutes.

In complete contrast, Saina just walked into the second round with a crushing 21-7 21-9 win over Iran's Soraya Aghhajiagha in just 26 minutes.

In the next round, both Sindhu and Saina play Indonesia players who will have crowd support. Sindhu takes on Tunjung Gregoria Mariska while Saina will lock horns with Fitriani.

"I did not take it easy but that was a very good match. I was making too many errors. She was not leaving any shuttle. It was not allowing me to attack. There was drift here and there but we have to manage," Sindhu said later.

Saina said she had come prepared for her opponent.

In other matches, Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Ashwini Ponappa and N Sikki Reddy advanced in the women's doubles with 21-16 21-15 win over Hong Kong's Ng Wing Yung and Yeung Nga Ting.

Also moving to next round were CWG silver medallists Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, who beat Hong Kong pair of Yonny Chung and Chun Hei Tam 21-12 21-14 in men doubles.

However, Rutaparna Panda and Arathi Sunil lost 11-21 6-21 to Thailand's Chayanti Chaladchalam and Phataimas Muenwong in women's doubles.