Macau Open 2024: Srikanth Off to Winning Start on Return; Mithun, Anupama, Tanya Crash Out

Kidambi Srikanth marked his return to the BWF World Tour with a winning start in the opening round of the Macau Open 2024 at Macao East Asian Games Dome in Macau, China on Wednesday (September 25).

Sixth-seed Srikanth, who suffered an injury during the Singapore Open earlier this year in May, secured a straight games victory in his first match on return to action, beating Israel's Daniil Dubovenko 21-14, 21-15 in the men's singles opener that lasted 35 minutes.

The former world number one Srikanth will next face compatriot Ayush Shetty in the second round on Thursday (September 26). Shetty booked his second round berth following an easy straight games win over fellow Indian Alap Mishra.

The 19-year-old Shetty saw off the qualifier Mishra in the men's singles first round match by a scoreline of 21-13, 21-5 in just 29 minutes. Now, he is set to play another all-Indian contest in the BWF Super 300 tournament.

In mixed doubles, Sikki Reddy and B Sumeeth Reddy started their Macau Open campaign with a hard-fought win over Malaysia's Loo Bing Kun and Ho Lo Ee in the first round.

Sikki-Sumeeth defeated the Malaysian duo by a scoreline of 24-22, 10-21, 21-13 in 58 minutes to book a second-round meeting with another Malaysian pair in Wong Tien Ci and Lim Chiew Sien. However, it was curtains for Rohan Kapoor and Gadde Ruthvika Shivani.

Kapoor-Shivani suffered a straight games loss in a close contest against eighth-seeded Thai pair Ruttanapak Oupthong and Jhenicha Sudjaipraparat. The Indian pair lost by a scoreline of 21-23, 22-24 in 47 minutes.

Women's singles players Anupama Upadhyaya and Tanya Hemanth also exited the tournament early following contrasting defeats in their respective matches on Wednesday (September 25).

While Anupama lost to Japan's Riko Gunji by a scoreline of 12-21, 22-20, 7-21 in 53 minutes, Tanya went down by straight games 18-21, 19-21 against Chinese Taipei's Liang Ting Yu.

In men's singles, Mithun Manjunath also suffered a straight games 12-21, 15-21 loss to Huang Yu-Kai of Chinese Taipei to exit the tournament in the opening round.

Earlier on Tuesday (September 24), Indian third seeds Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand overcame a stiff challenge from the Japanese pair of Akari Sato and Maya Taguchi in women's doubles to move to the second round.

The Indian pair lost the opening game before winning 15-21, 21-16, 21-14 in a the round of 32 contest that lasted nearly an hour. They will next face Lin Chih Chun and Teng Chun-hsun in the second round on Thursday (September 26).