Bali, Dec 1 :India star shuttler Kidambi Srikanth got off to a fiery start while the women’s pair of Ashwini Ponappa and N Sikki Reddy suffered a defeat in the first group stage match Today at the ongoing BWF World Tour finals.

PV Sindhu, young Lakshya Sen and men’s doubles pair of Satwik Sairaj and Chirag Shetty will begin their challenge in their group stage matches later in the day, .

Srikanth eased past Frenchman Toma Junior Popov with his all-round prowess in the first group stage match at the World Tour Finals here.

The shuttlers were neck-to-neck in the beginning of the first game. But the former Indian world no.1 took three points lead with his fine play and went onto the break with a slight 11-9 lead.

Post break, Srikanth looked quick on his feet and earned a comfortable 5 points cushion, 15-10. He continued domination over the French and took the first game by 21-14.

There was an intense contest between the shuttlers in the second game. Srikanth was down 1-4 but he staged a comeback and leveled the scores 6-6 with his lightning smashes and headed to the mid-game interval with 11-9 lead.

Srikanth extended his lead to 13-9 post interval. Popov tried to retrieve the match but it was too late, as the Indian took the match point with a beautiful cross court drop shot and walked out with a win by 21-14, 21-16.

Earlier, the experienced womens’ doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy went down fighting to second seeded Japanese counterparts Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida in their opening group stage match.

The Indians were competitive in the beginning of the first game, but Nami and Shida took a healthy 11-6 lead by the mid-game interval.

The Indians came back strong post the break and reduced the scoreboard deficit to 9-11. But the Japanese managed to take control.

Ashwini-Sikki were trailing 10-13; the Japanese opened a huge gap towards the end and pocketed the first game 21-14 with ease in 19 minutes.

Ashwini and Sikki improved their performance in the second game, and put up a decent fight after trailing 11-5 to equalise the score 16-16. However, that wasn’t enough for the Indian duo to get past the Japanese, as number of unforced errors made them surrender the game by 17-21.

High on confidence, Kidambi will next take on Kunlavut Vitidsarn on December 2. On the other hand, women’s doubles pair will look for their first win on Thursday, when they lock horns with Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria.(UNI)