PV Sindhu eases into second round at All England Championships

Olympic silver medallist PV Sindhu dominated from start to finish and smashed her way into the second round of the prestigious All England Badminton Championships here today.

India's Rio Games silver winner, seeded sixth in the competition, drubbed 33rd ranked Denmark's Mette Poulsen 21-10 21-11 for a comfortable win in her first round women's singles match. In the men's singles, H S Prannoy came from a game down to beat Qiao Bin 17-21 22-20 21-19.

In the qualifiers earlier, the Verma brothers -- Sourabh and Sameer -- lost in the opening round, while Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy won the first match before losing in the second round, failing to make the main draw. Sameer, who had reached the finals at Hong Kong Open, lost 17-21 12-21 to Japan's Kazumasa Sakai, while National champion Sourabh's fight against Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia ended with a 10-21 21-14 20-22 loss here.

Ashwini and Sikki defeated England combination of Lauren Smith and Sarah Walker 21-17 16-21 24-22 in the first round and then lost 15-21 21-18 18-21 to Swiss Nadia Fankhauser and Sannatasah Saniru of Malaysia in the second round.