NEW DELHI: A clinical Lakshya Sen defeated compatriot HS Prannoy in straight games to advance to the pre-quarters in the Yonex-Sunrise India Open Super 750 badminton tournament on Tuesday.
Defending champion Lakshya registered an easy 21-14, 21-15 win over Prannoy at the KD Jadhav Indoor hall in IG stadium to make a winning start to his title defence.
World No. 12, seeded seventh, Lakshya looked in complete control against world No. 9 Prannoy, avenging his Malaysia Open defeat last week.
As it happened
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand notched up a 22-20, 17-21, 21-18 win over France’s world No. 29 Margot Lambert and Anne Tran in their opener.
Among other Indians, N Sikki Reddy and her new women’s doubles partner Shruti Mishra went down fighting 17-21, 19-21 to Germany’s Linda Efler and Isabel Lohau.
Earlier, Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke knocked out two-time world champion Kento Momota of Japan 21-15, 21-11, former top-10 player Shi Yuqi of China staved off a challenge from Indonesia’s Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo 20-22, 21-16, 21-15 and Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu Wei beat Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen 21-18, 21-17.
Fifth seed Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei also prevailed 22-20, 14-21, 21-11 over Lee Cheuk Yiu, while Zhao Jun Peng beat Weng Hong Yang 21-19, 21-12 in another match.
In women’s singles, three-time former winner Ratchanok Intanon recovered from a back injury to get the better off Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei 21-13, 21-11 and Rio Olympic champion Carolina Marin beat 2017 world champion Nozomi Okuhara 21-13, 21-18.
(With inputs from PTI)