Srikanth in Rd 2, Sen shown door
Basel, March 22
Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen’s woeful run continued as he made a first-round exit at the Swiss Open even as compatriot Kidambi Srikanth progressed to the next round of the BWF World Tour Super 300 event here today.
The eighth-seeded Sen looked a pale shadow of himself as he failed to match the level of Hong Kong’s Cheuk Yiu Lee in a 18-21 11-21 loss in the men’s singles, while Srikanth had to dig deep to get the better of China’s Weng Hong Yang 21-16 15-21 21-18. Srikanth will look to avenge Sen’s defeat as he meets Lee in the second round.
Mithun Manjunath registered a 21-8 21-17 win over Joran Kweekel of the 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 Jun Peng Zhao 21-12 21-13 in another first-round match.
The women’s doubles pair of N Sikki Reddy and Arathi Sara Sunil lost 12-21 14-21 to Japan’s Sayaka Hobara and Yui Suizu. In the men’s doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty meant business as the second-seeded Indians defeated the Malaysian combination of Xin Yuan Boon and Tien Ci Wong 21-15 21-18 to book their place in the pre-quarterfinals.
