India Open 2024: HS Prannoy Enters Second Round; Priyanshu Rajawat Ousts Lakshya Sen

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India's HS Prannoy eased past Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei with a straight games win to reach the second round of the India Open 2024 badminton tournament at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall in New Delhi on Tuesday (January 16).

The World No.9 Indian dished out a compact game to outwit Chen, ranked 13th, by a scoreline of 21-6 21-19 in the men's singles first round match that lasted 42-minute clash on court 1.

The 31-year-old, who raced to an overwhelming 11-2 lead at the interval, won the first game with ease by a scoreline of 21-6. The Chinese Taipei shuttler, however, put up a fight in the second game before losing to the Indian by a scoreline of 21-19.

"The planning was spot on in the first game. I was executing good shots from back of the court. He was not getting the length well, so I had to wrap it up," Prannoy said after the match.

"In the second game, he was pushing the speed and finishing a lot of shuttle from the back but I was happy to fight back from 11-16 and towards the end, I was playing the right game.

"It was important to close it in two games because if it is the third game, then it is always a tough one as he (Chen) pushes with his experience."

Prannoy, who crashed out in the first round of last week's Malaysia Open 2024, will next face compatriot Priyanshu Rajawat in the second round on Thursday (January 18).

The 2023 Orleans Masters champion Rajawat secured a come-from-behind win that knocked out fellow Indian and superiorly ranked Lakshya Sen in the men's singles opener.

The 21-year-old Rajawat defeated world number 19 Sen by a scoreline of 16-21, 21-16, 21-13 in the first round match that lasted for an hour and 15 minutes on court 2.

Earlier on Tuesday (January 16), women's doubles pair of Swetaparna Panda and Rutaparna Panda looked listless in their opening round match as they suffered a 6-21, 7-21 loss in 31 minutes on Court 1 to Yeun Nga Ting and Yeung Piu Lam of Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, Kiran George also made an early exit follow straight games loss in men's singles first round match to Chinese Taipei's Wang Tzu Wei. George lost the game by a scoreline of 12-21, 15-21 in 37 minutes on court 1.

Doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, who won the first game, went down fighting to Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida of Japan by scoreline 21-18, 14-21, 13-21 in an hour and 10 minutes.

Later in the day, in men's doubles action, Dhruv Kapila and MR Arjun lost in straight games to Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin of Chinese Taipei in the first round. The Indian duo suffered a 9-21, 13-21 loss in 35 minutes on court 1.

On Wednesday (January 17), the likes of Kidambi Srikanth and Aakarshi Kashyap will open their men's and women's singles campaigns respectively, while four doubles teams, including the in-form Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and Ashwini Ponnappa-Tanisha Crasto pairs will be in action.

Apart from Satwik-Chirag and Ponnappa-Crasto pairs, Krishna Prasad Garaga-Sai Pratheek K, and Ashwini Bhat K-Shikha Gautam pairs also will begin their doubles campaign on Wednesday (January 17).