Kidambi Srikanth storms into Indonesia Masters second round

The Indian shuttlers performed brilliantly at the competition on Wednesday.

Indian badminton star Kidambi Srikanth stormed into the second round of the Indonesia Masters 2021 with a hard-fought win over Christo Popov on Wednesday. The world No. 15 was dragged all the way to three games by the 19-year-old Frenchman in a tough tournament opener.

Srikanth started the match well but understood the challenge in the first game itself. He had to grind and rally to win the first game 21-18, but the match was far from over then. Popov hit back in the second game, upsetting the Indian star by winning it 21-15.

However, Srikanth was not to be deterred. He fought back to win the third game 21-16, picking up a 21-18, 15-21, 21-16 win to progress further in the Indonesia Masters. The Indian shuttler will now face world No. 8 Jonatan Christie in what is guaranteed to be a difficult second-round match.

Prannoy joins Srikanth into next rounds

Srikanth wasn’t the only Indian singles shuttler to make it to the second round. Later on, Prannoy Kumar also booked a place in the next round after an impressive opening win over Malaysian shuttler Liew Daren.

Unlike Kidambi, Prannoy was able to do it in straight games. He was taken to the limit by Daren in the first game but showed impressive character to get a 22-20, 21-19 win that guarantees him a place in the second round.

Kapila and Sikki storm into men’s doubles second round

Indian men’s doubles duo Dhruv Kapila and N Sikki Reddy also impressed in their first match of the Indonesia Masters. They defeated Indonesian duo of Praveen Jordan and Melati Oktavianti in a compelling fashion.

Kapila and Sikki started dominating from the get-go. They humbled the hosts in the first game, winning it 21-11. The second game was more difficult as Jordan and Oktavianti pushed back. However, the Indian pair showed impressive resolve to win it 22-20, picking up a 21-11, 22-20 win. They will now face Thailand's Supak Jomkah and Supissara Paewsampran in the next game.

Kashyap, Reddy and Ponnappa falter in opening games

However, it wasn’t exactly a perfect day for the Indian contingent in the Indonesia Masters on Wednesday. Parupalli Kashyap was ousted by Danish shuttler Hans-Kristian Vittinghus in their men’s singles first-round encounter.

Kashyap fought his hardest but just couldn’t match up to the World No. 20, despite doing quite well in the second game. Vittinghus picked up a compelling 21-10, 21-19 win to end Parupalli’s stay in the competition. The mixed doubles duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and B Sumeeth Reddy also suffered early elimination in the mixed doubles opener. They faced the sixth seed of Indonesian duo Hafiz Faisal and Gloria Widjaja in their first match.

The Indonesian pair were just too strong for Ponnappa and Reddy. Despite the Indian duo fighting hard and winning some nice points, they couldn’t match their opponents' level in the end – suffering a 15-21, 16-21 loss that ends the road in the mixed doubles campaign.

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