India’s PV Sindhu, on Wednesday, made her way into the pre-quarterfinals of the 2024 Singapore Open Super 750, while Lakshya Sen bowed out of the competition following a first round loss.
Up against Denmark’s world No 21 Line Kjaersfeldt, the 2024 Paris Olympics-bound Sindhu registered a straight games 21-12, 22-20 victory in 44 minutes.
The double Olympic-medallist, fresh off a final loss at the Malaysia Masters Super 500, breezed past her Danish opponent 21-12 in the first game to kickstart her campaign in comfortable fashion.
Sindhu was pushed to the brink in the second game as Kjaersfeldt secured four game points to go up 20-16, but the Indian fought back valiantly, winning six points in a row to move into the next round.
The 28-year-old Sindhu will next take on long time rival Carolina Marin in the Round of 16 on Thursday.
The women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand also progressed to the next round with a 21-7, 21-14 win over Chinese Taipei’s Cheng Yu-Pei and Sun Yu Hsing.
Later in the day, HS Prannoy beat Julien Carraggi of Belgium 21-9, 18-21, 21-9 in an match that took under an hour to complete.
The first game saw the eighth seeded Indian completely dominate his opponent from the beginning, not allowing the Belgian to put up a challenge and won 21-9. In the second game, Carraggi fought back after Prannoy was leading 6-1 at the beginning to win seven straight points and took the lead. The two exchanged serve throughout until 17-all when Carraggi broke away to level the match after winning the second game 21-18.
The third game went about the same way as the first one as Prannoy recovered to win seven straight points and close out the third game 21-9.
Later, Lakshya Sen lost a hard-fought match 13-21, 21-16, 13-21 to world No 1 Viktor Axelsen in a contest which lasted 62 minutes.
Sen, who made a return to the World Tour Circuit after a short break, struggled to find his rhythm early on and trailed 3-11 at the mid-game interval. Though the Indian put up a better display in the latter part of the opening game, the eight-point gap was too much to recover as the Danish shuttler pocketed the first game 21-13.
The change of sides for the second game bought some change in fortunes for Sen though Axelsen led 11-10 at the mid-game interval. The Indian fought back well to equalise at 14-14 before a late surge saw him win the second game 21-16 to force a decider.
The new found momentum carried Sen forward in the early exchanges of the third game as he led 6-3 and 9-7, but Axelsen once again took an 11-10 lead before the change of ends.
The former world champion went on a run of seven points on either side of the break to lead 15-10 and it was too much to close for Sen as he conceded the decider 13-21 to bow out of the competition.
Earlier, Kidambi Srikanth withdrew midway from his men’s singles first round clash against Kodai Naraoka.
The Indian trailed 14-21, 3-11 against the fifth seed before he decided to pull out to hand the Japanese shuttler a slot in the pre-quarterfinals.
Tanisha Crasto-Ashwini Ponnappa and Simran Singhi-Ritika Thaker both exited in the opening round of women’s doubles alongside the men’s doubles pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga-Sai Pratheek.
Meanwhile, the mixed doubles pair of Sathish Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath went down 15-21, 21-18, 11-21 to China’s Guo Xin Wa and Cheng Fang Hui, while Sumeeth Reddy and Sikki Reddy lost out in straight games 18-21, 19-21 to Goh Soon Huat and Lai Shevon Jemie of Malaysia.
The other mixed doubles pair of Venkat Prasad and Juhi Dewangan too bowed out after a 8-21, 8-21 loss to Mads Vestergaard and Christine Busch of Denmark in mere 18 minutes.
