Star shuttlers PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth progressed to the singles second round with straight game wins on a mixed day for India at the USD 500,000 Thailand Open Super 500 tournament here on Wednesday.
Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, saw off Tung Ciou-Tong of Chinese Taipei 21-9 21-12, while seventh seed Lakshya Sen, a two-time All England finalist, prevailed 21-16 21-17 over Singapore's Jia Heng Jason Teh.
Srikanth stunned eighth seed Loh Kean Yew of Singapore 21-14 21-15 in 30 minutes. Srikanth, a former world No. 1, will face Chinese Taipei's Su Li Yang, while Sindhu will meet Denmark's Amalie Schulz in the round of 16. Lakshya, a 2021 world championships bronze medallist, returning back from his injury at the Thomas Cup, will square off against either Chinese Taipei's Wang Po-Wei or China's Zhu Xuan Chen.
Young Devika Sihag, who won the Thailand Masters for her maiden super 300 title early this year, also produced a fine show, outclassing World No. 26 Natsuki Nidaira of Japan, 21-19 13-21 21-15 in an hour and 11 minutes. In another match, Malvika Bansod beat Wen Yu Zhang of Canada 13-21 26-24 21-13 but Tanvi Sharma suffered a 17-21 8-21 loss to Hina Akechi of Japan.
The 20-year-old Ayush Shetty, a finalist at the Asia Championships, also fought hard before going down 13-21 21-17 4-21 against Japan’s sixth seed Kodai Naraoka, while Tharun Mannepalli lost 12-21 16-21 to another Japanese Koki Watanabe.
In women's singles, Unnati Hooda and Anmol Kharb too displayed their fighting spirit before narrowly missed out against Thailand's fourth seed Pornpawee Chochuwong and second seed Chen Yu Fei of China, respectively. While Hooda went down 21-11 17-21 16-21 to Chochuwong, Kharb suffered a 21-19 13-21 18-21 loss to the Tokyo Olympic champion.
Mixed pair of Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh lost 22-24 11-21 to Tsai Fu Cheng and Sung Yu-Hsuan to bow out. Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto also found the going tough against Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra Boje, going down 9-21 15-21 in 32 minutes to end their campaign.
Also read: Badminton Asia Championships: Ayush stuns Lin, enters 2nd round
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