Badminton
Indonesia Open: Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, Priyanshu enter pre-quarters
CWG Champion Lakshya Sen and former world number 1 Kidambi Srikanth entered the pre-quarterfinals of Indonesia Open 2023.
Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen and former world number 1 Kidambi Srikanth along with Priyanshu Rajawat cruised into the second round of the Indonesia Open World Tour Super 1000 event in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Facing off against Malaysia's Zii Jia Lee, Lakshya secured a one-sided straight games win. Ranked 20th in the world, Lakshya triumphed over Lee 21-17, 21-13 in the contest that lasted just 32 minutes.
Lee Zii Jia was making multiple errors and Lakshya utilized that to his advantage. Displaying his immaculate defense, Lakshya prevailed over the higher-ranked opponent.
Lakshya will next face his Indian compatriot Kidambi Srikanth who defeated Lu Guang Zu of China in straight games 21-13, 21-19.
Kidmabi also won his first game with ease against the Chinese shuttler and was en route to another win in the second game before Guang started making a comeback.
Although Srikanth held on to his nerve to hit back-to-back winners to clinch the match.
Another Indian Priyanshu Rajawat got a walkover from Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand to seal his place in the next round.
Rajawat, however, has a tough second-round tie as he set to face the winner of the match between Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittnghus of Denmark and second-seed local shuttler Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.
The other Indian in the men's singles fray is HS Prannoy who will take on Hong Kong's Angus Ng Ka Long in the second round.
However, it was curtains for young Indian female shuttler Aakarshi Kashyap as she crashed out in the opening round of women's singles.
Kashyap was no match for second seed An Se Young of Korea, losing 10-21, 4-21.