US Open 2023 badminton: PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen progress into second round

Iowa [US], July 13 : Indian badminton players PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen made the second round of the US Open Badminton 2023 with comfortable wins in their respective opening matches at Council Bluffs here.

PV Sindhu, currently 12th in the BWF world badminton rankings, saw off local player Disha Gupta by a 21-15, 21-10 scoreline in the opening round of women’s singles on Wednesday. Lakshya Sen, meanwhile, dispatched Finland’s Kalle Koljonen 21-8, 21-16 in men’s singles.

Heading into the first mid-game break of the match, PV Sindhu found herself trailing by two points against the 136th-ranked Disha Gupta. The two-time Olympic medallist, however, found her touch after the restart to win 12 of the next 16 points and took the lead.

The second game saw PV Sindhu take control of the proceedings right from the start as the match wrapped up in 27 minutes. This was the first time the two players played each other.

The Indian badminton player will face world No. 30 Sung Shuo Yun of Chinese Taipei in her second-round clash on Thursday.

Earlier, India’s Lakshya Sen, who won the Canada Open title last week, dominated world No. 55 Koljonen to win his match in just under half an hour.

Lakshya Sen, seeded third in the tournament, will go up against the Czech Republic’s Jan Louda in the next round.

Sankar Muthusamy, who made the main draw of men’s singles through the qualifiers, also made the round of 16 after shocking eighth-seed Nhat Nguyen of Ireland 21-11, 21-16. Nguyen is ranked 32nd in the world - 48 places above the Indian shuttler.

Israel’s Misha Zilberman will be Muthusamy’s next opponent in the BWF Super 300 tournament.

B Sai Praneeth’s US Open campaign, however, ended after going down 21-16, 14-21, 19-21 to the Republic of China’s Li Shi Feng, the reigning All-England champion.

India’s Ruthvika Shivani Gadde also crashed out after losing 14-21, 11-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Lin Hsiang Ti in the first round of women’s singles.