Sindhu, Prannoy Advance; Sen Falls to Axelsen in Singapore Open

PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy, and Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand emerged victorious in the opening round of the Singapore Open Super 750 Badminton Tournament on Wednesday. However, Lakshya Sen faced a disappointing defeat against world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen.

Sindhu, a former Singapore Open champion, defeated world No. 21 Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark 21-12, 22-20 in a 44-minute encounter. She will now face Rio Olympic champion Carolina Marin of Spain, who holds an 11-5 record against the Indian.

Prannoy overcame a spirited challenge from Julien Carraggi of Belgium 21-9, 18-21, 21-9 to set up a meeting with Japan's Kenta Nishimoto. Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Jolly and Gopichand notched up a 21-7, 21-14 win over Cheng Yu-Pei and Sun Yu Hsing of Chinese Taipei in women's doubles.

However, Lakshya Sen, who will make his Olympic debut in Paris, fought hard but lost 13-21, 21-16, 13-21 to Axelsen in a 62-minute battle. Kidambi Srikanth's opening round match ended in agony as he retired due to a knee injury after lagging 14-21, 3-11 against Japan's fifth seed Kodai Naraoka.

In other results, Olympic-bound women's combination Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa lost 21-18, 19-21, 19-21 to Ukraine's Polina Buhrova and Yevheniia Kantemyr. Men's pair Krishna Prasad Garage and Sai Pratheek K suffered a 16-21, 22-24 loss to second seeded Chinese Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang. B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy lost 18-21, 19-21 to Malaysia's Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie in mixed doubles, while Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan lost 8-21, 8-21 against Mads Vestergaard and Christine Busch.

Tags: #SingaporeOpen, #PVSindhu, #HSPrannoy, #LakshyaSen, #ViktorAxelsen