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India Open 2023: Defending champions Lakshya Sen, Satwik-Chirag off to flying starts

Top stars Carolina Marin, Ratchnok Intanon, Shi Yu Qi and India's women's doubles pair of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly also started with a win in India Open 2023.

lakshya sen

New Delhi, Jan 17: Defending champions Lakshya Sen and the men's doubles combination of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty began their title defence of the Yonex-Sunrise India Open 2023 with comfortable victories on the opening day of the competition at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi on Tuesday (January 17).

Lakshya Sen, Treesa-Gayathri enjoy strong crowd support as fans return to India OpenLakshya Sen, Treesa-Gayathri enjoy strong crowd support as fans return to India Open

India Open: Saina wins, Sindhu loses in first round

The only disappointing result for the vociferous Indian fans, who had been cheering the players through the day, was former champion PV Sindhu's straight games loss against Thailand's Supanida Kathethong.

While an inspired Saina Nehwal found a way to get the better of Denmark's Mia Blichfeldt in an hour and three minutes.

Saina, who has been on a comeback ever since injuring her knee at the end of 2021, defeated Blichfeldt 21-17, 12-21, 21-19 to end the day on a winning note for the Indian contingent. Saina, who moved a lot better, controlled the rallies and fought hard when the chips were down to advance to the second round.

Saina began on a positive note and raced to an 11-6 lead in the opening game before closing it without much ado. However, Blichfeldt stayed in control throughout the second game and it looked like the momentum had shifted towards the Dane.

Saina Nehwal

However, Saina showed that she had enough and more in her reserves as she went on the offensive to counter her opponents attacking strokes and came up with a deceptive net shot to close the match.

"I have been working on my movement and I was confident that I could win the match today... I could see that my movement was good today and I was determined to fight for every point," said Saina after the match.

She will now face China's Chen Yufei in the next round. The Tokyo Olympic gold medallist defeated Michelle Li of Canada 21-19, 21-15.

Lakshya stuns Prannoy

Earlier in the day, Sen defeated compatriot HS Prannoy 21-14, 21-15 in the men's singles while Satwik and Chirag thrashed Scotland's Christopher and Matthew Grimley 21-13, 21-15 to advance to the next round.

Sen's strong defence and relatively slower playing conditions meant that Prannoy needed to come up with something special to pack off his younger opponent. But that was no to be as the defending champion showed how difficult it would be to breach his defence in the initial exchanges and opened up a 11-3 lead and never looked back in that game.

Prannoy managed to keep pace with Sen at the start of the second game but the youngster opened up a two-point lead at the break and then kept things flat and fast to close out the match in 45 minutes.

He will now take on Denmark's Rasmus Gemke, who got the better of former world no. 1 Kento Momota of Japan 21-15, 21-11 in the first match of the day.

"I am happy that I could begin from where I left last year. In Malaysia, I could not control the shuttle in the match against Prannoy but today the conditions were quite good and could control the shuttle quite well. Tomorrow, is a rest day and I hope to continue playing like this after that," Sen said after the match.

Former women champions start with a win

There were no surprise upsets in the morning session of the HSBC BWF World Tour Super 750 event with former women's champion Ratchnok Intanon of Thailand, Spaniard Carolina Marin and China's men's singles star Shi Yu Qi advancing in contrasting fashion.

India Open 2023: Indian shuttlers in action, schedule, resultsIndia Open 2023: Indian shuttlers in action, schedule, results

Carolina Marin

Winning start for Gayatri-Treesa

Among the other Indians in the fray, the women's doubles combination of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly had to hold their nerves to get the better of the French combination of Margot Lambert and Anne Tran 22-20, 17-21, 21-18. They will next face the Chinese sixth seeded combination of Zhang Shu Xian and Zheng Yu, who defeated Ashna Roy and Haritha MH 21-4, 21-2.

Carolina Marin beat Nozomi Okuhara

Earlier, Marin came up triumphant in the clash of two former world champions beating Japan's Nozomi Okuhara 21-13, 21-18 in 39 minutes.

Both Marin and Okuhara had struggled in 2022 due to injuries and are still finding their feet on the world circuit. The Spaniard was first to get off the blocks after the initial exchanges closed out the opening game rather easily.

Okuhara then began mixing things up by pushing her opponent to the backhand court and won a few points when Marin tried to judge the shuttle instead of going for the overhead. This ploy helped the Japanese to open up a 12-8 lead before the Spaniard raised the tempo of the rallies.

Marin first weaved together a series of five straight to take the lead and then closed out the match with another set of five straight points. She will now meet sixth seed Ratchanok, who defeated Malaysia's Goh Jin Wei 21-13, 21-11 in her first-round clash.

India Open 2023 Day 1 Key results:

(Men's singles)

Rasmus Gemke (DEN) bt Kento Momota (JPN) 21-15, 21-11

WR 7-Lakshya Sen (IND) bt HS Prannoy (IND) 21-14, 21-15

Shi Yu Qi (CHN) bt Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo (INA) 20-22, 21-16, 21-15

WR 4-Jonatan Christie (INA) bt Brian Yang (CAN) 21-14, 21-9

WR 5-Chou Tien Chen (TPE) bt Lee Cheuk Yiu (HKG) 22-20, 14-21, 21-11.

(Women's singles)

Carolina Marin (ESP) bt Nozomi Okuhara (JPN) 21-13, 21-18

WR 6-Ratchanok Intanon (THA) bt Goh Jin Wei (MAS) 21-13, 21-11

Supanida Katethong (THA) bt 5-PV Sindhu (IND) 21-14, 22-20

WR 3- Chen Yufei (CHINA) bt Michelle Li (CAN) 21-19, 22-20;

Saina Nehwal (IND) bt Mia Blichfeldt (Den) 21-17, 12-21, 21-19.

(Men's Doubles)

WR 5- Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty (IND) bt Christopher Grimley/Matthew Grimley (SCO) 21-13, 21-15

Krishna Prasad G/Vishuvardhan Goud (IND) bt Ruben Jille/Ties van der Lecq (NED) 21-11, 23-25, 21-9

(Women's doubles)

Gayatri Gopichand/Treesa Jolly (IND) bt Margot Lambert/Anne Tran (FRA) 22-20, 17-21, 21-18

Linda Efler/Isabel Lohau (GER) bt Shruti Mishra/Sikki Reddy (IND) 21-17, 21-19

WR 6-Zhang Shu Xian/Zheng Yu (CHN) bt Ashna Roy/Haritha MH (IND) 21-4, 21-2.

Source: Media Release

Story first published: Tuesday, January 17, 2023, 18:52 [IST]
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