Indian men’s singles players HS Prannoy and Lakshya Sen advanced to the second round of the BWF World Championships 2023 on Wednesday with wins of a differing nature. Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy, however, bowed out in the first round of the mixed doubles event.

Playing against world No 57 Kalle Koljonen, ninth seed Prannoy started slowly by trailing 8-3 in the opening game. The Indian shuttler rallied back to take an 11-8 lead.

However, the momentum kept swinging back and forth after the break as Koljonen took the game to Prannoy and brought up three match points at 20-17. Prannoy fought back to level the scores only for Koljonen to bring up match point four more times.

Prannoy held his nerves to seal the first game 24-22. The momentum was firmly with Prannoy in the second game as he secured the second game 21-10 to secure his place in the second round.

In contrast to Prannoy, Sen had a comfortable time against Mauritius’ Georges Julien Paul winning the first game 21-12 before sealing the second game 21-17 and moving into the second round.

Srikanth crashes out

Later in the day, Kidambi Srikanth lost 14-21, 14-21 in straight games against Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto to crash out in the first round.

The former world No. 1 led 11-9 at the first mid-game interval, but soon lost his plot. Once the 14th seeded Japanese turned his fortunes around post the interval, there was no looking back for the Indian, who crumbled to a tame exit ftom the competition.

In the mixed doubles event, Reddy and Kapoor lost a 59-minute encounter against Scotland’s Adam Hall and Julie Macpherson 21-14, 20-22, 21-18.