PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen recorded victories to make a positive start to their respective women's and men's singles campaign at the Indonesia Masters Super 500 tournament on Wednesday. Lakshya, seeded seventh, beat Denmark's Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus 21-10 21-18, while Sindhu had a tougher outing, beating Line Christophersen of Denmark 18-21 21-15 21-11 in a 51-minute match.
Lakshya faces Denmark's Rasmus Gemke next, while Sindhu plays Indonesia's Gregoria Mariska Tunjung.
In other results, Aakarshi Kashyap lost 12-21 11-21 to USA's Beiwen Zhang in under 30 minutes. On a comeback trail after recovering from an injury, Sameer Verma lost 17-21 15-21 to Indonesia's Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo.
The mixed doubles pairing of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto lost 14-21 21-16 12-21 to fourth seeds Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianti of Indonesia in their opening round match.
Sindhu came into the match with a 3-0 head-to-head record against Line but she blew a 11-9 advantage to lose the opening game, primarily due to her unforced errors. In the second game too, Sindhu squandered a 3-0 lead but Line too couldn't grab the opportunity. The Danish world number 22 played some superb cross-court smashes but errors cost her. A wide shot from Sindhu helped Line to grab a slender 11-10 lead but she again went long as the Indian established a three-point cushion and extended it to 17-12 after a long rally.
In the decider, Line was 4-1 up but slipped up due to unforced errors. Sindhu too tightened the screws as she kept a grip on the rallies to move to 11-7 at the final break.
Sindhu kept pushing the shuttle at the baseline and didn't allow her rival to come near the net. Eventually the Indian moved to 11 match points with a precise return at the back and sealed it when Line went to the net again.