US Open Badminton: PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen Register Wins in Opening Round, B Sai Praneeth Ousted

Indian badminton ace PV Sindhu got the beating of her American opponent of Indian origin, Disha Gupta, while Lakshya Sen opened his men’s singles campaign with a comfortable victory against Kalle Koljonen of Finland at the US Open Super 300 badminton tournament.

In another men’s singles match, S Sankar Subramanian, who entered the main draw of the tournament after two tough qualifying matches, registered a win over his Irish opponent Nhat Nguyen 21-11, 21-16 in the first round.

However, B Sai Praneeth went down fighting the 23-year-old world No. 7, Li Shi Feng of China, in a gruelling match that lasted three games.

Olympic medallist shuttler Sindhu downed Diksha 21-15, 21-12 in just 27 minutes to enter the second round, while Sen showed his Finnish opponent the exit door in less than 30 minutes with his cruising 21-8, 21-16 win.

Sankar though was pushed by his opponent, Nhat Nguyen of Ireland, before claiming a convincing 21-11, 21-16 win in a game that lasted 44 minutes.

Praneeth tried his best to challenge second-seeded Shi Feng before the Indian surrendered the game in a fixture that lasted for over an hour as he went down 16-21, 21-14, 21-19.

Ruthvika Shivani, India’s 61-ranked player conceded defeat at the hands of Chinese Taipei shuttler Lin Hsiang Ti in straight games 14-21, 11-21.

On Tuesday, former Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap withdrew from his game against Koo Takahashi of Japan midway through the encounter, in his second match after trailing 21-23 7-11. Kashyap had won his first match against England’s Rohan Midha 21-19, 21-17.

Men’s doubles pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala, however, couldn’t cross the opening round losing as they tasted defeat against the likes of Lin Yu Chieh and Su Li Wei of Chinese Taipei 14-21, 14-21.

The BWF World Tour is divided into six levels, namely World Tour Finals, four Super 1000, six Super 750, seven Super 500, and 11 Super 300.

One other category of the tournament, the BWF Tour Super 100 level, also offers ranking points.