Singapore Badminton Open 2024: PV Sindhu sets up second-round clash against Carolina Marin

HS Prannoy also won his men’s singles match. Lakshya Sen lost to top seed Viktor Axelsen while Kidambi Srikanth had to retire from his match.

3 minBy Anjishnu Roy
PV Sindhu of India.
(Getty Images)

India’s PV Sindhu advanced to the second round of the Singapore Badminton Open 2024 BWF Super 750 tournament in Kallang on Wednesday.

PV Sindhu, a two-time Olympic medallist, defeated world No. 21 Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark 21-12, 22-20.

Following the first-round victory in 44 minutes, Sindhu, 12th in the current world badminton rankings, will face former Olympic champion and rival Carolina Marin of Spain in the second round.

The two shuttlers famously faced each other in the final of the Rio 2016 Olympics where Marin had the last laugh. The Spaniard, seeded third, also enjoys an 11-6 head-to-head record against the Indian badminton player.

The last time Sindhu and Marin met each other was in the semi-final of the Denmark Open 2023, where Carolina won 21-18, 19-21, 21-7.

India’s leading men’s singles player HS Prannoy has also secured his place in the second round. Prannoy, ranked 10th in the badminton rankings, beat world No. 45 Julien Carraggi of Belgium 21-9, 18-21, 21-9 in 55 minutes.

Eighth-seeded Prannoy will take on world No. 11 Kenta Nishimoto of Japan in the second round.

Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen was up against reigning Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark and suffered a 21-13, 16-21, 21-13 loss. The world No. 14 Indian did well to take the contest to a decider but failed to make it count against the top seed.

Kidambi Srikanth ended up retiring 31 minutes into his first-round encounter against fifth-seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan. The former world No. 1 was trailing 21-14, 11-3 before pulling out.

Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand made the second round of the women’s doubles after securing a comfortable 21-7, 21-14 win over Cheng Yu-Pei and Sun Yu Hsing of Chinese Taipei in 27 minutes. They will face second seeds Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee of the Republic of Korea in the next round.

Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa, however, suffered a first-round exit after losing to Polina Buhrova and Yevheniia Kantemyr of Ukraine by an 18-21, 21-19, 21-19 scoreline.

Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker have also been eliminated from the Singapore Open 2024 after a 21-12, 21-12 loss to eighth seeds Apriyani Rahayu and Sitti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti of Indonesia.

The men’s doubles pair of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Sai Pratheek K failed to get past second seeds Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang of the People’s Republic of China. They lost 21-16, 24-22 in 41 minutes.

In mixed doubles, SK Karunakaran-Aadya Variath of India lost 21-15, 18-21, 21-11 to Guo Xin Wa-Chen Fang Hui of China after a 51-minute encounter.

The pair of B Sumeeth Reddy-Sikki Reddy lost to Goh Soon Huat-Lai Shevon Jemie of Malaysia 21-18, 21-19 while Danish pair Mads Vestergaard-Christine Busch made light work of Venkat Gaurav Prasad-Juhi Dewangan, beating them 21-8, 21-8 in just 19 minutes.

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