Indian star shuttlers PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen eased into the second round of the US Open badminton 2023 tournament with comfortable straight games win in their respective opening matches at Council Bluff, USA. Two-time Olympic medalist Sindhu, currently ranked 12th in the BWF rankings, defeated local player Disha Gupta. The third-seeded Indian shuttler outclassed the American 21-15, 21-12 in just 27 minutes to enter the second round. Sindhu will next face world no.30 Sung Shuo Yun of Chinese Taipei on Thursday.
Heading into the first mid-game break of the match, the 28-year-old Indian shuttler found herself trailing by two points against the 136th-ranked American opponent. However, Sindhu produced a good comeback and found her touch after the restart to win 12 of the next 16 points to take the lead. Sindhu took control of the proceedings right from the start of the second game and finished the match very soon.
Earlier, Commonwealth Games champion Sen dominated world no.55 Kalle Koljonen and knocked out him in just under half an hour. The in-form Indian, who won the Canada Open title last week, beat his Finnish opponent 21-8, 21-16. Sen will be up against Jan Louda of the Czech Republic in the second round.
In another men’s singles match, qualifier Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian, who had entered the main draw of the tournament after two tough qualifying matches, defeated his tricky Irish opponent Nhat Nguyen 21-11, 21-16 in the first round match that lasted 44 minutes.
While the trio reached the second round, it was curtains for B Sai Praneeth and Gadde Ruthvika Shivani, who suffered first-round exits following contrasting defeats. Sai Praneeth lost to world No. 7 Li Shi Feng of China after a grueling match that lasted three games, while Shivani was no match to Lin Hsian Ti of Chinese Taipei. Praneeth gave a tough fight to second seed Shi Feng before going down 16-21, 21-14, 21-19 in one hour and 14 minutes.
India’s 61-ranked player Ruthvika Shivani went down to Lin Hsiang Ti of Chinese-Taipei 14-21, 11-21 in a women’s singles match that lasted for just 27 minutes. Earlier on Tuesday, former Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap retired midway into his second match after trailing 21-23 7-11 against Koo Takahashi of Japan. He had won his first match against England’s Rohan Midha 21-19, 21-17.
