Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty battled their way into the pre-quarterfinals but it was curtains for Lakshya Sen in the very first round of the Indonesia Open Super 1000 badminton tournament here on Tuesday.

Sindhu overcame long-time rival Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 22-20, 21-23, 21-15 in an absorbing one-hour and 19-minute clash in the women’s singles.

“I have been losing in the first rounds [of late] so it was very much useful and important for me to win matches like these,” said Sindhu after her match. “If you see the women’s circuit now, it’s more about long rallies, less of attack, and defence has become very strong. At one point it was like we were attacking mostly and then you know it was all like a faster speed game,” Sindhu added.