Sindhu, Lakshya, Srikanth, Anmol enter second round of Indonesia Masters

Two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth progressed to the second round of their respective events at the Indonesia Masters badminton tournament here on Wednesday.
Fifth seed Sindhu registered a hard-fought 22-20 21-18 win over Japan’s Manami Suizu in a 53-minute women’s singles first-round match.
Former world No. 1 Srikanth, currently ranked 33rd in the world, endured a gruelling contest before outlasting world No. 22 Koki Watanabe of Japan 21-15 21-23 24-22 in one hour and 12 minutes. He will next face fourth seed Chou Tien Chen, who defeated Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen 21-14 21-15.
Seventh seed Lakshya, the 2021 World Championships bronze medallist, opened his campaign with a 21-13 16-21 21-14 victory over Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu Wei in the opening round.
Seventh seed Lakshya, who won the Australia Open last year, will face Hong Kong’s Jason Gunawan next.
Among other Indians, Anmol Kharb notched up a straight-game 21-16, 21-17 win over Pai Yu Po of Chinese Taipei to move into the second round.
However, Ayush Shetty, HS Prannoy and Kiran George exited in the opening round.
While Ayush suffered 8-21, 13-21 loss to eighth seed Alwi Farhan of Indonesia, Kiran lost 17-21, 14-21 to Indonesia’s Moh Zaki Ubaidillah.
Former top-10 player H S Prannoy also suffered a first-round defeat, going down 19-21, 11-21 to Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in a 35-minute match.
In women’s singles, Malvika Bansod lost 21-23, 12-21 to sixth seed Michelle Li of Canada in a 37-minute round-of-32 match.
World junior championships silver medallist Tanvi Sharma once again produced a brave effort before bowing out 21-18, 18-21, 16-21 to fourth seed Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan in a match lasting one hour and eight minutes.
In another women’s singles match, Akarshi Kashyap went down 21-8, 20-22, 17-21 to Denmark’s Julie Dawall Jakobsen.
India’s campaign in mixed doubles ended in the first round, with Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Gadde losing 9-21, 20-22 to fourth seeds Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue of France, while Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto were beaten 23-21, 20-22, 6-21 by Julien Maio and Lea Palermo of France.