India’s Kidambi Srikanth plays against China’s Lu Guang Zu during their men’s singles round of 32 match at Indonesia Open badminton tournament at Istora stadium in Jakarta, Indonesia on June 14, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP
Commonwealth Games champion Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen and compatriot Kidambi Srikanth eased into the second round of the men’s singles at the Indonesia Open World Tour Super 1000 event with straight-game wins over their respective rivals on June 14.
While Lakshya, a world championship bronze medallist and ranked 20th in the world, took just 32 minutes to quell the challenge of world no.11 over Zii Jia Lee of Malaysia 21-17 21-13, Srikanth beat Guang Zu Lu of China 21-13 21-19.
The win helped Srikanth, ranked 22nd, to continue his dominance over world no.13 Lu, extending his head-to-head record against the Chinese to 5-0.
But it will be curtains for either Lakshya or Srikanth in the next round as they will take on each other.
Another Indian Priyanshu Rajawat got a walkover from Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand to seal his place in the next round.
Rajawat, however, has a tough second round tie as he set to face the winner of the match between Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittnghus of Denmark and second seed local shuttler Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.
The other Indian in men’s singles fray is H.S. Prannoy who will take on Hong Kong’s Angus Ng Ka Long in the second round.
However, it was curtains for young Indian female shuttler Aakarshi Kashyap as she crashed out in the opening round of women’s singles.
Kashyap was no match for second seed An Se young of Korea, losing 10-21 4-21.