India Open 2023: Home favourite PV Sindhu knocked out after first-round loss to S Katethong
Double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu was knocked out of the India Open Super 750 badminton tournament after a first-round loss to Thailand's Supanida Katethong in New Delhi on Tuesday.
FollowDouble Olympic medallist P V Sindhu was knocked out of the India Open Super 750 badminton tournament after a first-round loss to Thailand's Supanida Katethong in New Delhi on Tuesday.
World No. 7 Sindhu, a former champion, went down 12-21 20-22 to the world No. 30 in the women's singles match. The Indian had lost to the same player in the semifinals in the last edition.
Sindhu didn't look at her best as she struggled against the left-handed Supanida, who was precise in her returns and looked in more control in the rallies to take the opening game.Â
The former world champion fought hard in the second game as she moved from 12-17 to grab one game point at 19-20. She, in fact, had left the court after the opponent's return was called out. But a video referral showed that the shuttle had actually kissed the line, handing her opponent a chance to close the match and she did it in style after Sindhu went wide.
Sen trumps Prannoy
Defending champion Lakshya Sen looked in fine fettle on his way to a straight-game win over compatriot HS Prannoy. World No. 12 Sen, seeded seventh, settled the score against world No. 9 Prannoy after his opening round reversal at the Malaysia Open, with a 21-14 21-15 win at the KD Jadhav Indoor hall in IG stadium.
Commonwealth Games champion Sen will next take on Denmark's Rasmus Gemke, who knocked out two-time world champion Kento Momota 21-15 21-11 earlier in the day.
Prannoy didn't have a good start, committing too many unforced errors to fall behind from the start. Sen, on the other hand, looked to attack and remained steady in the rallies, producing some good-looking winners to stay ahead at 15-9.
Sen brought down the shuttle with a thud every time it was in range, while Prannoy was erratic. Soon Sen moved to nine game points; he wasted three of them before Prannoy went to net again.
The second game looked more competitive at the start but Sen broke off at 9-9 and never looked back.
"I could settle from the beginning, get my length and defence properly. In the Malaysia Open, I wasn't able to control the shuttle. Today my smashes and half smashes were working," Sen said after the match.
Reigning champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also produced a clinical display to storm into the second round after beating Scotland's Christopher Grimley and Matthew Grimley 21-13 21-15 in their men's doubles opener.Â
Satwik and Chirag, who had claimed a semifinal finish last week in Kuala Lumpur, will be up against either China's Liu Yu Chen and Ou Xuan Yi or England's Ben Lane and Sean Vendy.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also notched up a 22-20 17-21 21-18 win over France's world No. 29 Margot Lambert and Anne Tran in their opener. It was their first win against their opponent in last three meetings.
Among other Indians, N Sikki Reddy and her new women's doubles partner Shruti Mishra went down fighting 17-21 19-21 to Germany's Linda Efler and Isabel Lohau.
(With inputs from PTI)
