Double Olympic medalist PV Sindhu, in-form Lakshya Sen, and India’s senior shuttler Kidambi Srikanth all produced strong performances to advance to the second round of the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament here on Wednesday. Sindhu, who won the title in 2022, outplayed Thailand’s Pornpicha Choeikeewong in straight sets 21-12, 21-13. Sindhu will next face Japan’s Tomoka Miyazaki in the second round.
Sen, who had reached the semifinals of the French Open and the All-England Championships in the previous two weeks, defeated Malaysia’s Leong Jun Hao 21-19, 15-21, 21-11 in a battle that lasted 62 minutes. The 22-year-old Sen will now face Chinese Taipei’s Chia Hao Lee to earn a spot in the last eight. Srikanth, the former world no.1, who won the title in 2015, outclassed world no.24 Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu Wei 21-17, 21-18 in a 43-minute match. It was Srikanth’s sixth victory in seven matches against his opponent. Srikanth, who won the silver medal at the 2011 World Championships, will next face Malaysian top seed Lee Zii Jia.
In women’s doubles, sixth-seeded Indian duo Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa, fought well to beat Indonesia’s Meilysa Trias Puspitasari and Rachel Allessya Rose 21-18, 12-21, 21-19 in an exciting first round. The world no.20 Indian pair will next play Japan’s Rui Hirokami and Yuna Kato. In another women’s doubles match, Priya Konjengbam and Shruti Mishra from India defeated Huang Yu-Hsun and Liang Ting Yu of Chinese Taipei in straight games 21-13, 21-19.
Earlier on Tuesday, Indian star pair Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand advanced to the second round of the Swiss Open Super 300 women’s doubles after defeating Annie Xu and Kerry Xu of the United States in straight games. Treesa and Gayatri, who made a first-round exit at the All-England Open last week, cruised past the American duo in 39 minutes with a 21-15, 21-12 win in the opening round.
However, the other three Indian pairs competing in the women’s doubles main draw made first-round exits. Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam went down 13-21, 21-16, 14-21 to the fourth-seeded Hong Kong duo Yeung Nga Ting and Yeung Pui Lam, while Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda were defeated with ease with a scoreline of 4-21, 6-21 by top seeds Apriyani Rahayu and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti of Indonesia. Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker were brushed aside 17-21, 7-21 by another Indonesian pair Tria Mayasari and Ribka Sugiarto.