This was the much-anticipated match of the evening with Indian star PV Sindhu taking on All-England champion Wang Shixian of China on court No. 1.
Sindhu failed to prove a match for the world No.3 whom she had beaten three times earlier. She went down 15-21 21-12 10-21 here in the Yonex Sunrise India Superseries being played at the Siri Fort Sports Complex.
Having lost to Sindhu in the Swiss Open only a few days back in March, it was not an easy task for Chinese to crack Indian code and that too in her own backyard. Nevertheless, Shixian on Wednesday had other plans.
Sindhu started off in her usual style of playing big rallies to keep up the pace with current All England champion. On the other hand, Chinese was keen on shorter rallies and not allowing Sindhu to use her tactics. The battle was sharp and both players kept exchanging the points. But what was worrying Sindhu was her unforced errors at the net.
This cost Indian dear as Shixian wrapped-up the first game in just 23 minutes.
The second game started similarly before Sindhu managed to force longer rallies to upset Shixian calculations. At 8-7, Sindhu took lead for the first time and went on to she levelled the score at 1-1.
An upbeat Sindhu started the third game on same note, taking 3-0 lead in no time. Shixian, at this point, shifted her gears and started attacking Sindhu at her backhand more frequently. He short smashes started troubling the Indian, who in return against started committing the unforced errors.
India had a mixed day with Saina Nehwal defeated Simone Prutsch of Austria and Parupalli Kashyap stunned world No. 7 Zhengming Wang of China in their respective matches.
Four other Indians — two men-and two women — Sourabh Varma, RMV Gurusaidutt, Sayali Gokhale and Trupti Murgunde chalked out contrasting victories on their way to the next round.
London Olympic bronze medallist, Saina, took just 25 minutes to beat Austrian 21-7, 21-9.
It was not an easy outing for Kashyap, who had a strapping on his shoulder after having suffered a partial dislocation in German Open, scripted a thrilling three-game win over his fancied Chinese and in the process took a sweet revenge of the defeats he had suffered against his rival in 20012 (China) and 2013 (Hong Kong).
Kashyap overpowered the Chinese 21-12, 17-21, 21-12 in a match which lasted an hour.
However, K Ajay Kumar, K Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth, Anand Pawar, Shreyansh Jaiswal and two-time national champion Anup Sridhar failed to live up to the expectations and could not cross the first round hurdle and crashed out.
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