Indian contingent continued to dish out mixed results in the ongoing Singapore Open Super 750. The second day of the tournament saw Lakshya Sen retire midway in his round of 32 match. The disappointment of Lakshya failing to complete his match was overcome as Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy opened their campaign with an easy win.
Lakshya, ranked 17th in the world in men’s singles, started his match strongly against Lin Chun-Yi of Chinese Taipei and won the opening game of the match 21-15. Lin Chun bounced back and clinched the second game 21-17. Lin Chun continued dominated the third as well and was enjoying a handsome 13-5 lead, when exactly at the one hour mark, Lakshya retired from the contest owing to an injury. The exact nature of the injury remains unknown.
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The men’s singles match between Lakshya and Lin Chun was followed by the men’s doubles round of 32 contest between Indian pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Malaysia’s Choong Hon Jian and Muhammad Haikal. The Indian duo were back on court after a over two-month long lay-off. The last time they were in action was at The All England Open when they had to forfeit their round of 16 match due to to Chirag’s back injury.
Chirag and Satwik, ranked 27th in the world, showed little sign of rustiness as they brushed aside Hon Jian and Haikal 21-16, 21-13 in a match that lasted under 40 minutes.
In women’s singles, Aakarshi Kashyap and Unnati Hooda put up a brave fight but ended up on the losing side. Both Aakarshi and Unnati were drawn against Chinese shuttlers—Aakarshi faced Han Yue, while Unnati squared off against Wang Zhiyi. The two matches followed a similar pattern: both Indian players won the opening game of their respective matches, but the Chinese opponents bounced back to claim the next two games and eliminate them from the competition.
Aakrashi lost by a scoreline of 21-17 13-21 7-21 and her compatriot lost the match by a scoreline of 21-13 9-21 15-21.
On the opening day of the Singapore Open Super 750, veterans PV Sindhu and HS Prannoy won their respective matches but young guns Malvika Bansod, Anmol Kharb, Priyanshu Rajawat and Kiran George lost their matches and crashed out of the tournament.
Prakhar Sachdeo
The Sportz Planet Desk
