India Open: Lakshya Sen, Priyanshu Rajawat, HS Prannoy crash out in round one

NEW DELHI: It was a day of heartbreaks for quite a few Indian shuttlers, and the fans, at the KD Jadhav Indoor Stadium here on Wednesday. Despite the loudest cheers and unequivocal backing from the spectators, some of the top names of Indian badminton suffered shocking first-round exits from the India Open Super 750 tournament.

Paris Olympics semifinalist Lakshya Sen crashed out of the men’s singles event after a 21-15, 21-10 loss against Lin Chun-Yi of Chinese Taipei. Lakshya, 12th in the world rankings, lost to world No. 15 Lin in just 37 minutes. World No. 26 HS Prannoy fought for an hour and 13 minutes, but couldn’t prevent a 21-16, 18-21, 12-21 loss to Su Li Yang of Chinese Taipei.

This was Prannoy’s second loss in as many matches against Su Li Yang, having previously come up short at the All England Open last year. Prannoy started the match on a positive note and hit some delectable winners much to the de -light of the Indian fans. But Su came back in the second game, forcing some un -forced errors from Prannoy at crucial junctures. In the final game, Prannoy looked clearly tired as Su wrapped up the match in a jiffy. Youngster Priyanshu Rajawat battled valiantly and even saved a match point in the second game before going down fighting 16-21, 22-20, 13-21 against sixth seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan.

Rajawat employed big jump smashes to keep pace with Naroaka, making the Japanese work hard for every point, but Naraoka’s experience counted in the end.

Another young gun, Malvika Bansod, played her heart out against China’s Han Yue, the third seed. Malvika managed to eke out the first game from Han, but the Chinese upped the ante in the next two to win 20-22, 21-16, 21-11.

In an all-Indian clash between two Gopichand Academy trainees, Anupama Upadhyaya and Rakshita Sree, the former prevailed 21-17, 21-18 in 43 minutes. The match turned out to be a battle of wits between two good friends with experience triumphing over youth. Anupama, a former national champion, will now face Japanese sixth seed Tomaka Miyazaki in the second round.

“This is my first time playing in the India Open Super 750 level. Last year, I was just watching all of them play. Before this, I had played in the Super 500 but the standard at this level is different. Last year, I played my first 750 in China and last week also played the Malaysia Super 1000. These performances help me believe that I can be their equal. I have the speed and compatibility to compete against the top players,” Anupama said after her win.

Among the foreign stars, Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen fought back from a game down to beat Chi Yu Jen of Chinese Taipei 16-21, 21-11, 21-13 in a men’s singles first round match, while fellow Paris Olympics champion An Se Young of South Korea defeated Chiu Pin-Chian of Chinese Taipei 22-20, 21-15 in the women’s singles first round.

Also advancing to the next round were seventh seeded women’s doubles combination of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto, Rutuparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda and the mixed doubles combination of Ashith Surya and Amruta Pramuthesh.

Ashwini and Tanisha defeated com -patriots Kavya Gupta and Radhika Sharma 21-11, 21-12, while the Panda sisters got the better of the young Thai combination of Phattarin Aiamvarees -risakul and Sarisa Janpeng 7-21, 21-19, 21-14. Ashith and Amruta teamed up to beat K Tarun and Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli 21-14, 21-15 to advance to the mixed doubles second round.

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