Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen’s woeful run continued as he made a first round exit at the Swiss Open badminton tournament, even as senior compatriot Kidambi Srikanth progressed to the next round of the BWF World Tour Super 300 event, here on Wednesday.
The 2021 World Championships silver medallist Srikanth had to dig deep to get the better of China’s Weng Hong Yang 21-16 15-21 21-18 to set up a second round clash against Hong Kong’s Cheuk Yiu Lee, who dashed the hopes of world No.12 Sen.
The eighth seeded Sen looked a pale shadow of himself as he failed to match the level of his rival, losing 18-21 11-21 to bow out of the men’s singles competition.
But Mithun Manjunath registered a straight-game 21-8 21-17 win over Joran Kweekel of Netherlands to sail into the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals.
He will next face qualifier Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei, who stunned seventh seeded Chinese shuttler Jun Peng Zhao 21-12 21-13 in another first round match.
The women’s doubles pair of Sikki Reddy and Arathi Sara Sunil also crashed out in the opening round, losing 12-21 14-21 against Japan’s Sayaka Hobara and Yui Suizu.
But the celebrated men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty meant business as the second seeded India pair defeated Malaysian combination of Xin Yuan Boon and Tien Ci Wong 21-15 21-18 to book their place in the pre-quarterfinals.
Later in the evening, two-time Olympic medallist and fourth seed PV Sindhu will open her women’s singles campaign against Jenjira Stadelmann of Switzerland, while fifth seeded men’s singles shuttler H S Prannoy will be up againsy China’s Shi Yu Qi.
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