Rio de Janeiro: India’s Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu made a positive start to their campaign registering comfortable victories in the women’s singles badminton at the Rio Olympics on Thursday.
While Nehwal beat Lohaynny Vicente 21-17 21-17 in her opening game, Sindhu thrashed Hungarian Laura Sarosi 21-8, 21-9.
Saina made a nervous start as Brazil’s Vicente gave her a tough fight before the Indian top player got to her best to win.
Nehwal will now face Marija Ulitina of Ukraine on Sunday.
Sindhu, the World No. 10 took just 27 minutes to wrap up the match against the No. 64.
In the first game, the 21-year-old Indian took a strong lead of 8-1 to extend it further to 11-5 in the mid-game interval. After the break, Sindhu’s domination continued as she clinched it 21-8 in 13 minutes.
In the second game, the Hungarian came back well to match Sindhu initially, before the Indian went ahead to make it 11-6 during the interval.
Sindhu then took six points on the trot building a strong 17-6 lead before conceding two points but established her supremacy to bag the game 21-9 in 14 minutes.
However, the Indian challenge in Olympic women’s archery event came to an abrupt end on Thursday after Laishram Bombayla Devi and Deepika Kumari lost their respective pre-quarterfinal matches by choking at crucial junctures.
While Deepika was blanked 0-6 by World No.2 Tan Ya-Ting of Chinese Taipei, Bombayla lost 2-6 to World No.18 Alejandra Valencia of Mexico.
Both the archers were guilty of letting their nerves get the better of them.
Deepika was the first to take aim on Thursday and failed to raise her game when it mattered, losing 27-28, 26-29, 27-30 in a lop-sided contest, during which she managed to hit the bull’s eye only once.
The former World No.1 was put under pressure by Ya-Ting from the very start and never really managed to threaten her more fancied opponent.
While Deepika seemed out of sorts in the high-pressure match, Ya-Ting was a picture of composure, calmly striking 6 perfect 10s -- three of them back-to-back in the third set.
Bombayla also endured a disastrous outing which began with a 7 off the first arrow. In the 26-28, 26-23, 27-28, 23-25 loss, Bombayla was also found wanting in handling pressure.
After losing the third set narrowly, the Indian just could not gather herself, striking a 6 off the first arrow in the fourth set, which ultimately proved to be her undoing.
The Indian challenge in archery is now being represented by Atanu Das in the men’s competition. Atanu will be in action Friday in the pre-quarters.
