Asia Championships: PV Sindhu quick off the blocks, Lakshya Sen out

PTI

Dubai, April 26

While star shuttler Lakshya Sen made a first-round exit, double Olympics medallist PV Sindhu and veteran Kidambi Srikanth began with easy wins to advance into the pre-quarterfinals of the Badminton Asia Championships here today.

CWG bronze medal-winning women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also made the last-16 stage.

Fresh from finishing runner-up at the Spain Masters, Sindhu defeated Wen Chi Hsu 21-15 22-20 in a 46-minute affair in the women’s singles.

Trailing 11-14 in the first game, the world No. 11 Indian, who is on a comeback trail after a long injury lay-off, reeled off nine points in a row to take the lead.

In the second game, the Chinese Taipei shuttler showed some fight but Sindhu led 11-7 at the break before sealing the issue. Sindhu will face world No. 9 Han Yue of China in the pre-quarters.

Up against world No. 1 Akane Yamaguchi, promising Malvika Bansod stretched the star player before going down 23-25 19-21 in a 46-minute battle.

In the men’s singles, Srikanth took 25 minutes to see off his first-round opponent Adnan Ebrahim 21-13 21-8. He will face world No. 5 Kodai Naraoka in the last-16.

Sen, who took a short break to focus on his mental and physical health, was eliminated by world No. 7 Loh Kean Yew in a 7-21 21-23 loss. World No. 9 HS Prannoy prevailed over Phone Pyae Naing of Myanmar 21-14 21-9 in 32 minutes.

In the women’s doubles, Treesa-Gayatri secured a comeback win. The duo roared back from behind to defeat Indonesia’s Lanny Tria Mayasari and Ribka Sugiarto 17-21 21-17 21-18 in a battle lasting more than an hour.

Mixed pair duo of Rohan Kapoor and Sikki Reddy were also through after defeating Chan Peng Soon and Cheah Yee See of Malaysia 21-12 21-16.

Loh exacts revenge

Having plummeted to the 24th spot in the BWF rankings, Sen got a tough draw as he was pitted against a former world champion.

The Singaporean, who had lost to Sen in their last meeting in the Indian Open final last year, showed swift court movements to race to a 21-7 lead. But Sen returned stronger in the second game and was two points behind at the break.

From thereon, the duo exchanged some rallies and Sen had a chance to level when he got a game point at 20-19 but Yew closed out the match in 45 minutes.

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