Sindhu makes winning start, Lakshya loses
Double Olympics medallist PV Sindhu made a winning start to the Badminton Asia Championships with a straight-game win over Ester Nurumi Wardoyo of Indonesia in the women’s singles while Lakshya Sen made an early exit from the men’s singles draw.
The 29-year-old world No. 17 Sindhu won 21-15 21-19 in 44 minutes against 19-year-old Wardoyo, ranked 36th. Sindhu will be up against world No. 4 and third seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the pre-quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, 2021 World Championships bronze medallist Sen dished out a lacklustre performance against Lee Chia Hao of Chinese Taipei, a finalist at the All England Championships, to lose 18-21 10-21 in the first round. Earlier in the day, HS Prannoy also made an early exit as he lost 16-21 21-12 11-21 to Zu Guang Lu of China in the men’s singles opening round.
Kiran George, however, made it to the pre-quarterfinals with a 21-16 21-8 win over Dmitriy Panarin of Kazakhstan in 35 minutes.
In women’s singles, Aakarshi Kashyap, Anupama Upadhyaya, Malvika Bansod lost their respective matches to crash out of the tournament. In men’s doubles, Hariharan Amsakarunan and Ruban Kumar beat Sri Lanka’s Madhuka Dulanjana and Lahiru Weerasinghe 21-3, 21-12 in a Round of 32 contest.
