Singapore Open 2023 badminton: PV Sindhu loses to Akane Yamaguchi in opening round
This was PV Sindhu’s fifth first-round loss this season. HS Prannoy also crashed out. Kidambi Srikanth advanced to the second round of the BWF Super 750 event.
Badminton
India’s two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu, a former world champion, lost to the reigning world champion and No. 1 Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the first round of the Singapore Open 2023 badminton women’s singles event in Kallang on Tuesday.
PV Sindhu was the defending champion of the Singapore Open but came into the contest unseeded after making four first-round exits this year. The Indian badminton player started the season as world No. 7 but subsequently dropped out of the top 10 in the badminton world rankings.
Currently ranked 13th, PV Sindhu won the first game but went down in the next two to lose 21-18, 19-21, 17-21 in 61 minutes to crash out of the BWF Super 750 event.
PV Sindhu dominated the first game with Akane Yamaguchi playing catchup for the most part. The second game saw PV Sindhu lead 14-12 at one stage. However, Akane Yamaguchi snatched the momentum with a late charge and took the match into the decider.
Despite pulling off a few smashes and effective drop shots, PV Sindhu was unable to take the lead in the third game and lost to the Japanese shuttler in three games.
This was PV Sindhu’s 10th loss against Akane Yamaguchi. Sindhu leads the head-to-head tally 14-10.
India had a challenging day at the Singapore Open 2023, suffering a loss in five of the eight matches in the opening rounds.
London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal lost to Thailand’s seventh seed Ratchanok Intanon 21-13, 21-15 in the first round. This was Saina Nehwal's third straight loss against Ratchanok Intanon. Saina Nehwal's last win over the Thai shuttler came in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Asian Games.
Commonwealth Games 2022 champion Lakshya Sen, who reached the semi-finals of the Thailand Open last week, failed to get past Chinese Taipei’s world No. 7 Chou Tien Chen and lost 21-18, 17-21, 13-21 in the men's singles first round.
Aakarshi Kashyap, world No. 40, also went down in the first round after losing to world No. 22 Supanida Katethong of Thailand 21-17, 21-9.
HS Prannoy, playing for the first time since winning the Malaysia Masters last month, could not break his losing streak against world No. 3 Kodai Naraoka of Japan and lost the match 21-15, 21-19 in 56 minutes. This was world No. 7 HS Prannoy’s fourth loss against the Japanese badminton player in as many matches.
Priyanshu Rajawat, Kidambi Srikanth advance
In the round of 16, Kodai Naraoka will face another Indian challenge in Priyanshu Rajawat, who stunned the world No. 15 Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan 21-12, 21-15 in his opening round match.
Priyanshu Rajawat has been in impressive form this season. He won the Orleans Masters BWF Super 300 tournament in France and climbed over 20 places in the rankings since March to be at world No. 37.
Kidambi Srikanth, world No. 23, defeated world No. 29 Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand 21-15, 21-19 in his opening round of men’s singles.
India’s men’s doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila got the better of the French pair Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar 21-16, 21-15 in their first round.
India’s world No. 4 men’s doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist women’s doubles pair Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly will begin their campaign on Wednesday.