NEW DELHI: Star shuttlers PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy advanced to the second round, but Lakshya Sen narrowly lost to world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen at the Singapore Open Super 750 Badminton Tournament on Wednesday.
Sindhu, who last won a BWF title in Singapore two years ago, entered the tournament after finishing as runner-up at the Thailand Open last week.
In her opening round, Sindhu defeated world No. 21 Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark 21-12, 22-20 in a 44-minute match, setting up a highly anticipated clash against Rio Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain. Marin, ranked world No. 3, has an 11-5 record against Sindhu. Their last encounter at the Denmark Open was notably heated, with both players receiving yellow cards for verbal exchanges.
World No. 10 Prannoy overcame a tough challenge from Julien Carraggi of Belgium, ranked 45, winning 21-9, 18-21, 21-9. Prannoy will next face Japan's Kenta Nishimoto.
The Commonwealth Games bronze medallist duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand started strong in the women's doubles, defeating Cheng Yu-Pei and Sun Yu Hsing of Chinese Taipei 21-7, 21-14.
Lakshya Sen, world No. 14, fought valiantly but ultimately lost to Viktor Axelsen 13-21, 21-16, 13-21 in a 62-minute match. Axelsen recently claimed his first title of the season at the Thailand Open.
Kidambi Srikanth's opening round ended in disappointment as he retired due to a knee injury while trailing 14-21, 3-11 against Japan's fifth seed Kodai Naraoka.
In other matches, the Olympic-bound women's pair Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 21-18, 19-21, 19-21 to Ukraine's Polina Buhrova and Yevheniia Kantemyr.
The men's pair Krishna Prasad Garage and Sai Pratheek K were defeated 16-21, 22-24 by the second-seeded Chinese duo Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang.
Additionally, B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy were beaten 18-21, 19-21 by Malaysia's Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie in mixed doubles. Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan also suffered a loss, going down 8-21, 8-21 against Denmark's Mads Vestergaard and Christine Busch.
(With PTI inputs)
