BWF World Championhips: Lakshya Sen advances; Sai Praneeth, Malvika Bansod crash out

Tokyo : Last edition’s bronze medallist Lakshya Sen made a winning start but B Sai Praneeth and Malavika Bansod’s campaigns came to an end in the BWF Badminton World Championships here on Monday.It was a mixed day for India as Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy advanced in women’s doubles while M.R Arjun and Dhruv Kapilla made it to the second round in men’s doubles.

The mixed doubles pair of Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto too advanced, beating the German pair of Patrick Scheiel and Franziska Volkmann 21-12, 21-13 in 29 minutes. Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy, however, lost to the Japanese pair of Hiroki Okamura and Masayuki Onodera 11-21, 21-19,15-21.

Sen, however, made a superb start in men’s singles, scoring a comprehensive win in his opening match.The 21-year-old from Uttarakhand, seeded ninth, started with a straight games win over Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus, overcoming the World NO 19 from Denmark 21-12, 21-11 in a match that lasted 35 minutes.

Sen surged ahead in the first game to open a 8-2 lead and maintained his advantage to win the first game. In the second game, after the players exchanged the first few points before Sen opened a 7-3 lead. Though the Danish player closed things to 11-7, Sen kept winning points at a steady rate to eventually win the game 21-11.

Things did not go well for Sai Praneeth as the player from Telangana lost to fourth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in three games. Sai Praneeth came back after losing the first game but could not maintain the tempo in the decider and went down 15-21,21-15, 15-21 in just over one hour.

Malvika Bansod lost her opening round match against Line Christophersen of Denmark in straight games, losing 21-11, 21-18.The women’s doubles pair of Ashwini and Sikki overcame the Maldives pair of Fathimath Nabaaha Abdul Razzaq and Aminath Nabeeha Abdul Razzaq in straight games,21-7, 21-9.

M.R Arjun Dhruv Kapila made it to the second round in men’s doubles, beating the Thailand pair of Supak Jomkoh and Kittinupong Kedren 21-17,17-21, 22-20.HS Prannoy and Kidambi Srikanth, the silver medallist in the last year’s edition, are scheduled to play later in the evening.