Badminton
Japan Open: PV Sindhu knocked out, Lakshya Sen wins thriller
PV Sindhu suffered another first-round exit while Lakshya Sen and Satwik Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty moved to pre-quarters of the Japan Open 2023.
PV Sindhu in action at second round of Malaysia Masters 2024 (FILE PHOTO)
Ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu suffered another first-round exit at a major tournament after losing to Zhang Yi Man of China in the first round of the Japan Open 2023 on Wednesday.
Double Olympic medalist, Sindhu started poorly against Zhang and conceded a lead of 4-0 in the early exchanges with visible errors on the net. Zhang Yi Man capitalized on the errors of Sindhu to win the first game 21-12.
In the second game, Sindhu started much better and made the Chinese work for her points. At the mid-game break, Zhang was leading 11-9 and she broke free after the break to win the game 21-13 knocking out Sindhu.
This is the second consecutive first-round exit for PV Sindhu in as many weeks as she lost to Pai Yu Po of Chinese Taipei 18-21, 21-10, 13-21 in the Korea Open last week.
While Sindhu lost, Lakshya Sen and Priyanshu Rajawat played out a thriller in men's singles with Lakshay defeating his Indian compatriot. In a match that went over an hour, Lakshya won the first game 21-15.
World number 31, Priyanshu made a solid comeback in the second game smashing Lakshya 21-12 to set up the decider.
Priyanshu suffered a heartbreak in the decider with experienced Lakshya winning the neck-to-neck battle in the decided 24-22 to move to the pre-quarter-finals.
Lakshya will meet local shutter Kanta Tsuneyama in the next round who defeated second-seed Anthony Ginting.
The new world number 2 pair of Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty survived a scare in the first round as the Indonesian pair of Daniel Marthin and Leo Rolly Carnando gave them a good fight.
The Indian pair won the match 21-16, 11-21, 21-13 but not before the Indonesian pair troubled them in the second game and forced the decider.
In another men's singles match, Mithun Manjunath lost a tightly-fought battle against Weng Hong Yang of China after leading the match for most of the time.
Mithun won the first game 21-13 and was having two match points in the second game before Weng Hong made a comeback to win the second game 24-22. The Chinese shuttler took the decider 21-18 after Mithun looked visibly tired.
Men's double pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila once again retired midway while lagging 5-15 in the first game against fourth seeds Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik due to an injury.
Arjun had pulled out in the first round of the Korea Open as well due to a back spasm.
