Tokyo: Fresh from winning the Korea Open Superseries title last Sunday, India’s No. 4 seed P.V. Sindhu sized up her first big test at the Japan Open Wednesday after she fought off spirited Japanese player Minatsu Mitani 12-21, 21-15, 21-17 in 64 minutes to set up a second round meeting with her rival in the World Championships and Korea Open final, Nozomi Okuhara on Thursday.
The unseeded and reigning World Champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan made it look easy on Wednesday when she saw off Hong Kong’s Cheung Ngan Yi 21-15, 21-13 in 40 minutes.
World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan however handed a walkover to unseeded Haruko Suzuki of Japan.
Malaysia’s Soniia Cheah was relieved to come through a well-contested match, beating Taiwan’s Lee Chia Hsin 21-13, 21-18 to take on No. 8 seed Zhang Beiwen of USA in the second round.
In women’s doubles, World No. 1 Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan of China suffered a shock defeat, going down to unseeded Misato Aratama/Akane Watanabe of Japan in just 38 minutes.
