Tokyo: Women’s singles World No.1 and top seed Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan booked her place in the Japan Open second round alongside P.V. Sindhu of India, Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, and Chen Yufei of China.
Tai rallied from 15-18 in the first set to turned the table against Soniia Cheah of Malaysia by winning the first set 21-18. The Taiwanese player went on to win the second set with the same score and will meet Chen Xiaoxin of China next.
The No. 3 seed PV Sindhu however was made to work before outlasting unseeded local player Sayaka Takahashi 21-17, 7-21, 21-13 in 53 minutes. Sindhu will next play Gao Fangjie of China, who beat J. Vaishnavi Reddy of India 21-10, 21-8.
Ratchanok Intanon got off to a slow start by losing to Minatsu Mitani of Japan 17-21 in the first set. The No. 4 seed from Thailand then recomposed herself to claim the next two sets 21-9, 21-15. Intanon will meet Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia in the second round.
In mixed doubles, Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying of Malaysia overcame Lee Yang/Hsu Ya Ching 21-14, 21-18 to advance to the second round. They will meet Pranaav Jerry Chopra/Reddy N. Sikki of India in the next round.
Meanwhile, another Malaysian mixed doubles pair Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing managed to regain their form to send Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand packing with a come from behind 7-21, 21-16, 21-15 victory. They will take on No. 5 seeds Zhang Nan/Li Yinhui of China on Thursday.
