It was another mixed first day for Indian shuttlers in a big tournament,as Lakshya Sen and Malvika Bansod made it to the Round of 16 of the All England Open. H. S. Prannoy and the duo of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponappa crashed out in the opening round in Birmingham.
Prannoy was the first Indian to take the court. The 32–year–old, after leading the first game 6-1 and 15-12, struggled to find momentum against France’s Toma Junior Popov. Prannoy eventually lost to the player ranked 17th 19-21, 16-21 in a match that lasted 53 minutes.
In the second encounter, Lakshya battled it out against Chinese Taipei’s World No. 37 Su Li Yang. Although the Indian lost the first game, after being tied at 17-17, he took three straight points to make a comeback in the second set. In the third, Laskhya started off with a bang, leading 11-9 till the interval. Yang fought back, levelling the set at 15-15, but Lakshya held his nerve and won 13-21, 21-17, 21-15. He will face World No. 3 Jonathan Christie in the next game.
The mixed doubles pair of Satish Kumar Karunakaran and Asdya Variyath had a challenging contest against the Chinese world No. 7 duoof Guo Xin Wa and Cheng Fang Hui. After a 51–minute contest, the Indians lost 6-21, 15-21.
In women’s singles, Malvika caused an upset by defeating Singapore’s World No. 12 Yeo Jia Min. Malvika, who is ranked World No. 28, pulled off an amazing 21-13, 10-21, 21-17 win as she advanced to the second round of this Super 1000 tournament. She will face the third seed and former world champion, Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi.
In the final match of the day, the women’s doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponappa faced another first round exit. They lost to Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh P S and Hung E T 20-22, 18-21. The Chinese Taipei pair gave the Indians no respite and dominated the game.
On Wednesday, all Indian eyes will be on PV Sindhu, other than the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksai Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.
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