Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen continued his impressive run, trouncing Danish Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus in straight games to progress to the men's singles second round at BWF World Championships in Tokyo, Japan on Monday. (More Badminton News)
Sen's senior team-mates Kidambi Srikanth and H S Prannoy also won their respective first round matches.
India also regis♎tered twin wins in women's and mi💯xed doubles competition on the opening day which saw B Sai Praneeth bow out after losing in three games to world number 4 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei.
The 20-year-old Sen, who had returned with a bronze on his debut in Spain last year, prevailed 21-12 21-11 over an erratic Vittinghus in his opening match. Sen will next face Luís Enrique Penalver o♚f Spain.
Praneeth, a 2019 bronze medallist, put up a brave effort be♌fore going down 15-21 21-15 15-2🎉1 to Chen in little over an hour.
It was yet another forgettable outing in Tokyo for Praneeth, following his struggles at last year's Olympic Games, wh🌃ere he participated w🌄ithout a proper coach or physio to bow out early.
Birmingham CWG br🤪onze medallist Srikanth, seeded 12th in the tournament, had to toil in his 22-20 21-19 win over Nhat Nguyen of♈ Ireland, while Prannoy secured a dominating 21-12 21-11 win over Luka Wraber of Austria.
Srikanth will face Zhao Jun Peng of China in the second round 💎whi🐼le Prannoy will be up against second see Kento Momota of Japan.
Former Commonwealth Games bronze m𓂃edallists Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy progressed to the women's doubles second round with a 21-7 21-9 win over Maldives' Aminath Nabeeha Abdul Razzaq and Fathimath Nabaaha Abdul Razzaq.
Ashwini and Sikki will face an uphill tas🍬k of taming top seeds Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan of China in the second round.
I🎶n mixed doubles, Tanisha Crasto and Ishaan Bhatnagar defeated German duo of Patrick Scheiel and Franziska Volkmann 21-13 21-13 in 29 minutes to also make a positive start to their campaign.
The Indian pair will meet 14th seeds Supak Jomkoh and Supissara Paewsampran☂ of Thailand next.
In another women's doubles match, India's ꦜPooja Dandu and Sanjana Santosh beat the Peru pair of Ines Luci🦩a Salazar and Paula Regal 21-6 10-21 21-14.
Sen, seeded ninth, playe𝔉d some exceptional cross court returns from deep forehand to trouble the 36-year-꧋old Danish, who had come into the match with a 2-1 head-to-head count against the Indian.
There was no lack of effort f🎉rom the veteran Danish, but he couldn't stop Sen from running away with the opening game, wi🐻th the Indian always staying a step ahead.
A relentless Vittinghus kept testing the Indian by engaging him in fast-paced rallies, one of which was of 31 sh🃏ots, but Sen used his winners to finish them off or the Danish miscued.
In the mi𒆙d-game interval of se💦cond game, Sen again managed a four-point advantage after Vittinghus sent one wide, and slapped his head in frustration.
At 11-15, Vittinghus made Sen twist and turn with his angled returns🍷 to win a point, but he was too erratic to put any pressure o🥀n his opponent.
Soon, five st💧raigh♉t points took Sen to match points and he sealed it with a smash.
Among others, B Sumeeth Reddy and Manu Attri lost 1🌄1-21 21-19 15-21 to Masayuki On🅘odera and Hiroki Okamura in men's doubles.
In women's singles, Malvika Bansod also bowed out in theܫ openingඣ round after losing 14-21 12-21 to Denmark's Line Christophersen.
