In a battle of the giants, Indian ace PV Sindhu prevailed over the former World Champion Nozomi Okuhara in the first round of the Arctic Open 2023 in Vantaa, Finland on Tuesday. It was a stupendous win for the two-time Olympic medalist, who won 21-13, 21-6, in straight games. As far as the head-to-head battles between these two players are concerned, Sindhu has won on 10 occasions, out of the 19 matches played.
Despite the dominating scoreline, PV Sindhu had not started the match on a great note. She trailed 0-4 at the beginning of the first game. But the former world no. 2 came back into the match confidently and gave a good account of her form. Soon the Indian made it 11-6, to go into the mid-game interval. Sindhu’s aggressive approach helped her dominate Okuhara in the second game as well. She led 11-3 at the break and then sealed the match to make it to the round of 16.
In the other women’s singles fixture, Aakarshi Kashyap came from a game down to defeat Lianne Tan of Belgium 18-21, 22-20, 21-18. Kashyap, ranked 41st, will face world No. 11 Wang Zhiyi of China in the round of 16. Meanwhile, Harshit Agarwal did not make it to the main draw in the men’s singles. He lost the qualifying fixture to Joakim Oldorff of Finland 21-19, 21-12.
In the mixed doubles, the Indian duo of K Sai Pratheek and Tanisha Crasto made it to the round of 32. They defeated Danish pair Andreas Sondergaard-Iben Bergstein in the qualifying round 26-24, 21-18. On Wednesday, Kidambi Srikanth will be in action against Max Weisskirchen of Germany in the round of 32. Kiran George and Mithun Manjunath will also begin their men’s singles challenge. Tanisha Crasto will be featuring in both mixed doubles and women’s doubles round of 32 matches alongside K Sai Pratheek and Ashwini Ponnappa, respectively.
PV Sindhu Moves Closer to Top 10
Despite losing her quarters match at the Asiad, PV Sindhu gained two spots in the rankings and is the new WR-13 player. Aakarshi Kashyap is the next-best Indian in the women’s singles at WR-41. Apart from that there was no significant gain/loss in the category. In the women’s doubles though, the pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand rose to WR-16. In the mixed doubles, Rohan Kapoor and Sikki Reddy are India’s best bets, at WR-38.
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