Indian Sports Live Updates: March 18 — Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, and Sutirtha Mukherjee qualify for Olympics, Sindhu reached All-England Open Badminton 2021 quarters
Table Tennis: Sharath wins, but Sathiyan might qualify for Olympics
Sharath Kamal beats Pakistan's Rameez Muhammad in straight games (11-4, 11-1, 11-5, 11-4).
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran to play Rameez at 10 PM IST and if Sathiyan wins, he books a spot in Tokyo Olympics. However, not all is lost for Sharath Kamal as he can still make it as the highest-ranked player in the reserves list which will be decided according to the ITTF Olympic Qualification Ranking Lists in April.
Lakshya Sen moves into quarter-final
Lakshya Sen becomes the first Indian to reach the quarter-final of the All-England Open with a 21-18, 21-17 second-round win over World No. 47 Thomas Rouxel.
Congratulations!
Momota beats Prannoy in straight games
Kento Momota comes back strongly after the break in the second game, takes 8 consecutive points and wins 21-14.
Final Score: HS Prannoy vs Kento Momota 15-21, 14-21.
Prannoy leads 11-9 in second game
Prannoy have turned things around in the second game and is now leading Momota by two points.
Lakshya Sen wins Game 1
Lakshya Sen on the other hand has started off his Round of 16 match on a bright note winning the first game 21-18 against Thomas Rouxel from France.
Momota vs Prannoy in Court 1
Kento Momota takes the first game 21-15 against HS Prannoy in the Round of 16 at the 2021 All England Open. Can Prannoy pull off an upset and win the next two games?
Currently ranked 31st in the world, HS Prannoy last won a title in 2017 when he clinched the US Open Grand Prix Gold.
Satwik-Ashwini knocked out in Round of 32
No contest in the second game! Satwiksairaj Shetty and Ashwini Ponnappa go down to the Japanese pair of Matsutomo/Kaneko 19-21, 9-21.
Not quite the result we were hoping for.
One set down!
Satwik/Ashwini could not hold on to the lead as the Japanese take the first game 21-19.
Satwik/Ashwini lead 11-7 in the first game
The mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa are up against Japan's Matsutomo/Kaneko in the Round of 32 encounter at the All-England Badminton Open 2021. The Indians are ranked 19 while their opponent is ranked 23. The only time they faced each other resulted in a win for the Japanese.
All England Badminton Open — Round 2 to start shortly
We have an action-packed day at the All-England Badminton Open today with Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Ashwini Ponnappa opening the proceedings for India in Mixed Doubles followed by men's singles where HS Prannoy who will face World No. 1 Kento Momota.
Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma will face World No. 2 and 3 Viktor Axelsen and Anders Antonsen. Lakshya Sen has a relatively easier outing against Thomas Rouxel.
PV Sindhu will face Line Christophersen in the evening.