Shuttler Lakshya Sen Advances To 2nd Round Of Men’s Singles At BWF World Ch’ships

Tokyo: Ace Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen continued his impressive run, trouncing Danish Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus in straight games to progress to the men’s singles second round at BWF World Championships.

The 20-year-old Sen, who had returned with a bronze on his debut in Spain last year, prevailed 21-12 21-11 over an erratic Vittinghus in his opening match.

India also registered twin wins in women’s and mixed doubles competition on the opening day which saw B Sai Praneeth bow out after losing in three games to world number 4 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.

Praneeth, a 2019 bronze medallist, earlier put up a brave effort before going down 15-21 21-15 15-21 to Chen in little over an hour. It was yet another forgettable outing in Tokyo for Praneeth, following his struggles at last year’s Olympic Games, where he participated without a proper coach or physio to bow out early.

However, former Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy progressed to the women’s doubles second round with a 21-7 21-9 win over Maldives’ Aminath Nabeeha Abdul Razzaq and Fathimath Nabaaha Abdul Razzaq.