Defending champion Lakshya Sen began his campaign in the India Open Super 750 badminton tournament with a straight-game win over compatriot HS Prannoy, here on Tuesday. 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.
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. Today my smashes and half smashes were good.
Satwik and Chirag, who made it to the semi-finals in Kuala Lumpur last week, will next take on the winner of the match between China’s Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi and England’s Ben Lane and Sean Vendy. 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. .
