New Delhi: The 2017 India Open champion, Viktor Axelsen of Denmark completed a dominant display in the India Open first round as he cruised past Misha Zilberman of Israel 21-13, 21-16.
The No. 2 seed player will face unseeded Suppanyu Avihingsanon of Thailand on Thursday.
In other men’s singles match, India’s No. 3 seed Kidambi Srikanth was forced to work hard to beat Vincent Wong Wing Ki of Hong Kong in three-sets.
Srikanth beat Wong 21-16 in the first set. After taking a 17-11 lead, Wong was able to fend off Srikanth in the second set even when the Indian shuttler mounted a comeback to level the game 18-18. Wong held his nerve to ultimately close out the game 21-18.
Playing in front of a packed crowd at the K.D Jadhav Indoor Hall, the cheers reached a deafening roar as Srikanth fought from 1-7, 11-17 deficit to beat Wong 21-19 in the decider when Wong hit an out of bound return. Srikanth will meet Lu Guangzu of China next.
“I was trying to stay calm and not give away easy points,” said Srikanth.
“I made too many unforced errors early in the decider. I told myself to be patient. Vincent and I have been playing against each other many times, we know each other’s game very well,” added Srikanth.
In women’s singles, The No. 2 seed PV Sindhu of India breezed past compatriot Mugdha Agrey 21-8, 21-13 in 23 minutes.
Sindhu will battle Joy Deng Xuan of Hong Kong in the last 16.
