China Masters 2023: Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth Go Down Fighting In Opening Round; Priyanshu Rajawat Also Crashes Out

Shenzhen (China), November 22: India's Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth went down fighting in the opening round of China Masters 2023 following contrasting results in their respective men's singles matches at the Shenzhen Bay Gymnasium in Shenzhen, China.

The Canada Open 2023 champion Sen suffered a defeat to China's Shi Yi Qi in their first-ever meeting by a scoreline of 19-21, 18-21 in the men's singles first round match that lasted for 59 minutes on court 1.

This was Sen's fourth successive opening round exit after last week's disappointment in the inaugural Japan Masters and last month's performance at the French Open and the Denmark Open.

Meanwhile, Srikanth fought back from a game down, but eventually lost the decider against fourth-seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn by a scoreline of 15-21, 21-14, 13-21 in the men's singles opener that lasted for an hour and two minutes on court 2.

This is Srikanth's fourth defeat in five matches against the Thai shuttler. This was also his third successive first round exit on BWF World Tour since the Asian Games.

Earlier on Wednesday (November 22), Priyanshu Rajawat also suffered a straight games loss to make an early exit from the China Masters 2023. The Orleans Masters 2023 winner lost by a scoreline of 17-21, 14-21 to Japan's Kenta Nishimoto in 46 minutes on court 3.

While Sen, Srikanth and Rajawat's run in the men's singles competition ended, their compatriot, HS Prannoy, who is the eight seed in the China Masters, registered a hard-fought straight games win over Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen to progress.

The Asian Games bronze winner, who had suffered a loss to the Chinese Taipei shuttler last week in the Japan Masters, redeemed himself with a 21-18, 22-20 victory on Tuesday (November 21).

Prannoy will next face Magnus Johanessen in the second round on Thursday (November 23), when the top doubles pair of Satiwksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also will be in action following their first round win over English pair Ben Lane and Sean Vendy.

The top seeded Indian pair eased past the English team by straight games 21-13, 21-10 to book the second round meeting with Japanese pair Akira Koga and Taichi Saito.

On Wednesday (November 22), women's doubles pair of Swetaparna Panda and Rutaparna Panda suffered a straight games loss to China's Zhang Shu Xian & Zheng Yu by a scoreline of 15-21, 9-21 to bow out in the opening round.

Also on Tuesday (November 21), the lone women's singles player from the country competing at the China Masters, crashed out in the first round following straight games loss to Zhang Yi Man by a scoreline of 12-21, 14-21.