Indian men’s singles shuttlers Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth bowed out of the 2023 China Masters Super 750 tournament following losses in their respective opening round matches on Wednesday.
While Sen went down in straight games against local favourite Shi Yu Qi, Srikanth lost to Thailand’s Kuvalut Vitidsarn in three games.
Up against the seventh seed in front of a crowd heavily in favour of Qi, Sen was put under pressure right from the beginning as he trailed 7-11. The Indian, however, fought back well to ensure Qi did not run away with the game as scores stood level at 19-19. With the crowd right behind him, Qi won the next two points to take the first game 21-19.
The Chinese shuttler continued to call the shots in the second game even though Sen kept pushing him to the hilt. The Commonwealth Games champion trailed 8-11 at the mid-game interval before surrendering it 18-21 to concede the match.
Srikanth, on the other hand, lost the first game tamely at 15-21 before asserting his dominance in the second to win it 21-14 and force a decider.
The former world No. 1 never looked like he would pose any trouble to Vitidsarn as the Thai shuttler raced away to win the final game 21-13.
Earlier in the day, the young Priyanshu Rajawat let early advantage slip against Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto to crash out in the opening round.
Rajawat enjoyed a 10-4 lead in the first game and was up 7-0 in the second but ended up losing 17-21, 14-21 in straight games.
Later in the day, the women’s doubles pair of Swetaparna Panda and Rutaparana Panda went down 15-21, 9-21 against China’s seventh seed pair of Zhang Shu Xian and Zheng Yu.
The results on Wednesday mean that HS Prannoy in men’s singles and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are the only surviving Indians in the competitions.
Both Prannoy and Rankireddy/Shetty had won their respective first round matches on Tuesday.
