German Open: PV Sindhu sails into round two

Seventh-seeded PV Sindhu of India defeated American Rong Schafer 21-11 21-13 in the women's singles first round of the German Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in Mulheim an der Ruhr, Germany, on Wednesday.

The world No. 12 Sindhu took just a little over half-an-hour to dispose of the 36th ranked American right-handed shuttler in their first meeting in the international circuit.

Sindhu will next take on Canada's Michelle Li in the second round on Thursday. Meanwhile, in the men's singles first round, qualifier Kaushal Dharmamer went down to 14th-seeded German Marc Zwiebler 4-21 14-21 late on Tuesday night.

However, fancied players Kidambi Srikanth, seeded sixth and 11th seed Parupalli Kashyap had contrasting first-round wins on Tuesday night.

Indians' results:
Women's singles: Rd 1: 7-PV Sindhu bt Rong Schafer (USA) 21-11 21-13
Men's singles: Rd 1: Sameer Verma bt Dmytro Zavadsky (UJR) 21-9 21-8, 6-K Srikanth bt Takuma Ueda (JPN) 12-21 21-18 21-11; 11-P Kashyap bt Artem Pochtarev (UKR) 21-9 21-9
K Dharmamer lost to 14-Marc Zwiebler (GER) 4-21 14-21