While the senior pros won their first round matches it was curtains for youngsters Lakshya, Malvika & Aakarshi.
Indian contingent who had a pretty disappointing start to the campaign on the first day of the championships was hoping to have a good day on the second. With as many as Seven Singles players in action. only PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal & Srikanth Kidambi could register wins and make it to the second round.
The day started in a very sedate fashion as Aakarshi Kashyap lost to Top seed Akane Yamaguchi is just 26 minutes. She showed glimpse of fight in the first game but after she lost it 15-21 the second game was just there for the taking. Akane winning the match 21-15, 21-9. This was their first meeting and surely Aakarshi would have learned a lot from this.
Next up in the singles match was the man – in – form Lakshya Sen who is now the India No1 at WR9. He was up against Shi Feng li from China. They have been playing each other since junior days starting from 2017. Lakshya enjoyed a H2H record of 3-1 against him. He started as well in a commanding fasion winning the first game 21-12. All was looking good and set to make it to the round two but that is where the Chinese shuttler started taking the grip of the game.
He won the second game 21-10 not giving Lakshya any chance. The Indian came back strongly in the third game and had a lead of 17-10 but lost it completly from thereon. Shi Feng won seven consecutive points and got the momentum to close the match. Lakshya lost 21-12, 10-21, 19-21.
Tokyo olympian Sai Praneeth was the next one on the court and he was up against the seed fourth of the tournament. Christie closed out the match in no time defeating Sai Praneeth 21-17, 21-13 in 34 minutes. Sai would have expected to put a better fight as he had beaten Christie the last time they met at the world championships.
Saina brings first win
Star Indian Shuttler Saina Nehwal bought the much needed energy to the Indian camp as she won her match against Sim Yu Jin. It was their first ever meeting and Saina used her experience to close the match against the Korean who is ranked 48th in the world currently.
The first two games were equally fought with Saina winning the first and losing the second. Saina took control of the match in the decider winning the game 21-13. She closed the match 21-15, 17-21, 21-13.
Source | ToI
Top ranked Indian shuttler PV Sindhu literally survived a scare to close the match against Pai Yu Po from Taiwan. After losing the first game 18-21 Sindhu and Pai were tied on points right from 20-all to 25-all. Sindhu finally managed to close the game 27-25. Sindhu took full control of the third game winning it in no time to close the match 18-21, 27-25, 21-9.
Source | HT
Young left hander Malvika Bansod played a suprb game against the much higher ranked Jia Min Yeo from Singapore. It was their first ever meeting . Malvika infact won the first game in a breeze 21-9 but Jia Min Yeo took control of the second game and closed in 21-17. The third game had all the action and Malvika 10-18 down bought the game to 19-all and took it 24-all. The opponent then got two points to close the match. The score read 9-21, 21-17, 26-24 for Malvika.
Srikanth Kidambi then played a good game to close the match against malaysian N T Yong in less than 45 minutes. He won 22-20, 21-15.
