Poor form continues to haunt two-time Olympic medalist P V Sindhu as the ace shuttler suffered yet another first
round defeat and crashed out of Japan Open badminton tournament While Lakshya Sen survived a scare before overpowering compatriot
Priyanshu Rajawat in three games at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Former world champion Sindhu, lost to China’s Zhang Yi Man 21-12, 21-13 to make her seventh opening round exit in 13 BWF World Tour
tournaments this year. This was also the Indian’s second straight opening round ouster after going down to Chinese Taipei’s Pai Yu Po in the Korea Open opener last week.
Zhang Yi Man, ranked one place lower than 17th ranked Sindhu, looked in control throughout the contest and wrapped up the match
in 32 minutes to pick up her third victory over the Indian shuttler in five meetings.
Before this clash , the two players had faced each other twice this year. While Zhang got the better of Sindhu at the All England Open
in March, it was the Indian who emerged the winner at the Malaysia Masters back in May.
Lakshya Sen waged a grim battle to oust Priyanshu Rajawat 21-15, 12-21, 24-22. His pre-quarterfinal opponent will be Japan’s Kanta
Tsuneyama, who upset Indonesian world No. 2 Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in the opening round.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, fresh off their Korea Open triumph last week,overcame a tough resistance from Indonesia’s
Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Marthin before emerging winners 21-16, 11-21, 21-13.
Mithun Manjunath, meanwhile, conceded a lead to lose 21-13, 22-24, 18-21 to China’s Weng Hong Yang in the opening round of
men’s singles.
Results at the Japan Open will count towards players’ qualifying rankings for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
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