NEW DELHI: Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen failed to change his fortunes as he suffered a first-round exit at the Swiss Open badminton tournament while Kidambi Srikanth moved to the pre-quarters of the BWF World Tour Super 300 event on Wednesday.
Srikanth endured a tough fight before emerging victorious against China’s Weng Hong Yang 21-16, 15-21, 21-18 and set up a second round clash against Sen’s conqueror Hong Kong’s Cheuk Yiu Lee.
The eighth seeded Sen proved to be no match against Cheuk Yiu Lee losing 18-21, 11-21 to bow out of the men’s singles competition.
But Mithun Manjunath registered a straight-game 21-8, 21-17 win over Joran Kweekel of Netherlands to sail into the men’s singles pre-quarterfinals.
He will next face qualifier Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei, who stunned seventh seeded Chinese shuttler Jun Peng Zhao 21-12 21-13 in another first round match.
The women’s doubles pair of Sikki Reddy and Arathi Sara Sunil also crashed out in the opening round, losing 12-21 14-21 against Japan’s Sayaka Hobara and Yui Suizu.
But the celebrated men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty meant business as the second seeded India pair defeated Malaysian combination of Xin Yuan Boon and Tien Ci Wong 21-15 21-18 to book their place in the pre-quarterfinals.
Later in the evening, two-time Olympic medallist and fourth seed PV Sindhu will open her women’s singles campaign against Jenjira Stadelmann of Switzerland, while fifth seeded men’s singles shuttler H S Prannoy will be up againsy China’s Shi Yu Qi.
(With PTI Inputs)