Badminton
Lakshya Sen pulls out of Hong Kong Open, Ashwini-Tanisha advances to pre-quarterfinals
The women's doubles duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto advanced to the pre-quarterfinals with a straight-game win over the Chinese Taipei pair of Lee Chia Hsin and Teng Chun Hsun.
Lakshya Sen in action during a tournament.
Lakshya Sen withdrew from the Hong Kong Open Super 500 two hours before his match and gave a walkover to his first-round opponent Su Li Yang of Chinese Taipei on Wednesday.
Lakshya, the eighth seed, was the highest-ranked men's singles player in the Hong Kong Open draw in the absence of world no. 7 HS Prannoy.
However, the women's doubles duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto advanced to pre-quarterfinals with a 21-19, 21-19 win over the higher-ranked Chinese Taipei pair of Lee Chia Hsin and Teng Chun Hsun. Ashwini-Tanisha is ranked 50th in the world, while Chia Hsin and Chun Hsun are placed 21st in the latest BWF rankings released on Tuesday.
Later, Ponnappa paired up with B Sumeeth Reddy in mixed doubles and lost to Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei of Malaysia in a three-setter 16-21, 21-16, 18-21 in the first round clash. Another mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Sikki Reddy lost against Hee Yong and Tan Wei of Singapore by 19-21, 10-21.
In men's doubles, Krishna Prasad Garaga and Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala lost their first-round match against Ko Sung Hyun and Shin Baek Cheol of South Korea 14-21, 19-21.
Lakshya was viewed as India's biggest bet for the title in the absence of Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth and PV Sindhu. The trio is part of the national camp for next week's Asian Games. The world no. 12 was also looking to break into the top 10 by winning this title.
Lakshya lost in the first round at the China Open. Now, back-to-back first-round ouster meant he would further go down in the ranking. Lakshya last won a tournament at the Canada Open Super 500 in July.
Priyanshu Rajawat, the world no. 28, who was India's only men's singles player to remain in contention, also made a first-round exit, losing to Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan 13-21, 14-21.
In women's singles, too, Aakarshi Kashyap lost to Yvonne Li 18-21, 10-21 in the first round, while Malvika Bansod, who entered the main draw following a win in the qualifiers lost against world no. 17 Zhang Yi Man of China 14-21, 12-21.
