Calgary (Canada). Indian badminton player P.V. Sindhu and Lakshya Sen advanced to the second round of the Canada Open 2023 BWF Super 500 event after winning their respective matches here.
Two-time Olympic medalist Sindhu registered a comfortable 21-16, 21-9 win over world number 62 Talia Ng of Canada in the opening round on Wednesday night.
Sindhu and Talia were head to head in the opening round. With the score tied at 13-all, the Indian veteran hit a series of smashes to take the lead and take the first game.
The 28-year-old Sindhu maintained her momentum in the second game as well and opened up a 4-0 lead over Talia Ng. The Canadian offered a brief resistance to narrow the gap to 6–5. However, the local shuttler failed to match the Indian’s intensity as Sindhu grabbed seven consecutive points to wrap up the match comfortably.
Sindhu, world number 15 in the latest women’s singles rankings, will next take on world number 27 Natsuki Nidaira of Japan.
Meanwhile, 2022 Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya got the better of world number four Kunlavut Witidsarn of Thailand 21-18, 21-15 in a hard-fought men’s singles first round match.
The first game saw a close contest between Lakshya and second seed Vitidsarn. Both the shuttlers were involved in an intense battle but the Indian maintained composure to take the lead. The second game was also closely fought. However, Lakshya leveled his game in the final exchange and took the lead in the 38th minute.
In other men’s singles, India’s B Sai Praneeth crashed out after losing 12-21, 17-21 to Brazil’s Ygor Coelho, who will be Lakshya’s opponent in the second round.
Another Indian shuttler Gadde Ritwika Shivani lost 12-21 3-21 to Thailand’s Supanida Katethong in the women’s singles first round.
Earlier, 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medalist Parupalli Kashyap lost in the men’s singles qualifying round on Tuesday.(IANS)
