Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu, Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen and qualifier Sankar Muthuswamy chalked out easy victories to move into the second round of the US Open Badminton at Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Former world no one, Sindhu ousted local challenger Disha Gupta 21-15, 21-10 in the opening round, third seed Lakshya Sen outlasted Finland’s Kalle Koljonen 21-8, 21-16 and qualifier Sankar Muthusamy upset Nhat Nguyen (Ireland) 21-11,21-16.
Heading into the first mid-game break of the match, Sindhu found herself trailing by two points against the 136th-ranked Disha. The Indian quickly regained her rhythm after the restart to win 12 of the next 16 points and took the lead.
In the second game Sindhu was in full control right from the start and she wrapped up the match in 27 minutes. This was the first time the two players played each other. The Indian will face world No. 30 Sung Shuo Yun of Chinese Taipei in her second-round clash.
Earlier in the day, 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. He will face 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 upsetting 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.
However, B Sai Praneeth’s US Open campaign ended as he went down 21-16, 14-21, 19-21 to reigning All England champion China’s Li Shi Feng. 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.