Lakshya Sen defeated Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in the opening round of the Singapore Open, a BWF Super 1000 event, setting up a second-round clash with compatriot Kidambi Srikanth, here on Wednesday.
Lakshya registered a 21-17, 21-13 win over world no 11 Malaysian in the round of 32. On the other hand, former world No. 1 Srikanth beat Chinese shuttler Lu Guang Zu 21-13, 21-19 in his opening round match.
The 21-year old Sen and Lee engaged in a close battle in the first game. With the scores tied 17-all, the Indian won four consecutive points to take the lead in the match.
Lee didn’t show much confidence in the second game. The Indian took advantage of the situation and dominated the proceedings to wrap up the win in 33 minutes.
Later in the day, Srikanth hardly faced a challenge from Lu Guang Zu and comfortably took the first game. The second game was a closely-fought affair as the Chinese rallied from 11-18 down to level the scores at 19-all. But the Indian ace held his nerves to win the match in 46 minutes.
Another Indian in the men’s singles, Priyanshu Rajawat received a walkover by Thai player Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in their first-round match of the Super 1000 event.
In the women’s singles, India’s Aakarshi Kashyap fell 10-21, 4-21 to world No. 2 Korean An Se Young, who is eyeing her sixth BWF World Tour title this year, in the round of 32.
Former world champion PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy and men’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy sealed their place in the second round on Tuesday.
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