Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy eased into the men's singles second round of the BWF Badminton World Championships in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Joining them in the second round are women's doubles teams of Ashwini Ponnappa/Sikki Reddy, Pooja Dandu/Sanjana Santosh, men's pair of MR Arjun/Dhruv Kapila and mixed duo of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto.
Bronze medallist at the 2019 edition Sai Praneeth went down fighting against fourth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei 15-21, 21-15, 15-21.
Prannoy had it easy against Luka Wraber of Austria 21-12, 21-11. Despite the straight game victory, Prannoy said that he was nervous at the start. "The start was pretty rusty and I was a little bit nervous. After the 11th point I opened up and got confidence. It has been a good first round. In the second game I was trying a lot of shots. When we get deeper into the tournament we need a lot of shots out there to play top players," Prannoy said, adding that he has his plans against Kento Momota, his next opponent.
"The second game was much much better. The draw is really tough. But it is World Championships and if you have to win World Championships you have to beat all the players out there. But it is really important to have fun. I am playing Momota tomorrow. It is going to be a fun match. I think I will have to have my plans for him. I am playing well, moving well. I just need to be in a good zone to beat him," Prannoy added.
Srikanth staved off a tough challenge from Nhat Nguyen of Ireland 22-20, 21-19. The silver medallist at the last edition lost to Nhat at the All England and was trailing 10-14 in the first game before he came up with a six-point burst to move to 16-14.
Though Nhat fought hard and even led 20-19, Srikanth won three crucial points on the trot to take the first game. The Indian, however, dominated Nhat in the second, though the scoreline suggests a different story.
Srikanth said getting past the first rounds is very important. "Very happy with the way it went. I am coming back from the CWG and did not have much time to practice. First rounds are very important," Srikanth told the BWF mixed media zone.
The youngest of the lot Lakshya demolished Hans-Kristian Vittinghus 21-12, 21-12 in just 34 minutes. The world No.10 Indian has an easy second round against world No.74 Luis Enrique Penalver of Spain.
Indian results (Rd I):
