World no 9 HS Prannoy and Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen chalked out straight games win over their respective rivals to move into the second round of the World Badminton Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Monday.
Prannoy knocked out world No. 57 Finland’s Kalle Koljonen 24-22, 21-10 in the round of 64. Lakshya Sen, ousted world No. 111 Georges Julien Paul of Mauritius 21-12, 21-7 in his opening encounter.
Koljonen put up a tough resistance in the opening game and was tied at 22-all. However, the higher-ranked Indian held his nerves to take the lead.
The second game was a much more straightforward affair with Prannoy dominating his rival throughout. The Indian maintained a firm grip over the proceedings and pocketed the match in 43 minutes. With this win, Prannoy now leads Koljonen 3-0 in the head-to-head records.
Lakshya Sen, the 2021 world championships bronze medalist, got off to a strong start and raced to an 11-3 lead over Georges Julien Paul early on. The Indian cruised through the match and sealed the affair in just 25 minutes.
This was Lakshya Sen’s second win over Georges Julien Paul. He had defeated Paul at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham as well.
Earlier in the day, the mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and N Sikki Reddy bowed out of the competition after losing 21-14, 20-22, 21-18 to the Scottish pair of Adam Hall and Julie Macpherson in a hard-fought match.