Sindhu bows out in first round of India Open, Sen beats Prannoy

Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu crashed out in the first round of the India Open Super 750 badminton tournament but defending men’s singles champion Lakshya Sen made a stunning start to his campaign with a straight-game win over compatriot HS Prannoy, here on Tuesday. Former champion and world number seven Sindhu went down in straight games 12-21 20-22 to world number 30 Supanida Ketthong of Thailand in women’s singles.

Supanida had defeated Sindhu in the semi-finals of this tournament last time as well. World No. 12 and seeded seventh here, Sen also avenged his Malaysia Open loss to world No. 9 Prannoy by putting up a spectacular show. Sen defeated Prannoy 21-14, 21-15 in the match played at the KD Jadhav Hall of Indira Gandhi Stadium. Sindhu struggled against left-hander Supanida, whose returns were accurate and she controlled the rally in the first game. Former world champion Sindhu put up a tough fight in the second game.

He held a game point at 20-19 after trailing 12-17. She had left the court when her opponent’s return was out but on video referral it was found that the shuttle had touched the line, giving Supanida the point and winning the match when Sindhu hit out. In men’s doubles, defending champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty beat Scotland’s Christopher Grimley and Matthew Grimley 21-13, 21-15 to enter the second round. Commonwealth Games champion Sen will next face Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke, who beat two-time world champion Kento Momota of Japan 21-15, 21-11.

Sen took a more aggressive approach and hit some decent winners. He raced to a 15–9 lead after a creditable start. Prannoy, on the other hand, made frequent mistakes which the 21-year-old Sen took full advantage of. Sen had nine game points out of which he lost three game points but Prannoy then found himself again at the net. The second game initially felt more competitive. The score was tied at 9-9 at one point in the game but there was no looking back for Sen after that.

Sen said after the match, “I got the rhythm in the beginning. In Malaysia Open, I could not control the shuttle. My smashes and half smashes were good today.” Satwik and Chirag, who made the semi-finals in Kuala Lumpur last week, will take on China’s Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi and England’s Ben Lane and Sean Vendy in the next round. Will fight with Chirag said, “We want to win more tournaments and our target is to reach number three in the world rankings this year. We want to win an important event like the All England Championship and do better than ever before in the World Championship.

Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand defeated world number 29 French pair of Margot Lambert and Anne Tran 22-20, 17-21, 21-18 in women’s doubles. In women’s doubles too, N Sikki Reddy and her new partner Shruti Mishra went down 17-21, 19-21 in a hard-fought match to Germany’s Linda Efler and Isabelle Lohau. Earlier, China’s Xi Yuqi defeated Indonesia’s Chiko Aura Dwi Wardoyo 20-22, 21-16, 21-15 and Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu Wei defeated Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen 21-18, 21-17.

In other matches, fifth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei beat Lee Cheuk Iew 22-20 14-21 21-11 while Zhao Jun Peng defeated Wang Hong Yang 21-19 21-12. In women’s singles, three-time former champion Ratchanok Intanon defeated Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei 21-13, 21-11 and Rio Olympic champion Carolina Marin defeated 2017 world champion Nozomi Okuhara 21-13, 21-18. .