Singapore Open 2023: Srikanth, Priyanshu progress to second round; defending champion Sindhu bows out

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Kallang (Singapore), June 6: India's Kidambi Srikanth advanced to the men's singles second round in the ongoing Singapore Open 2023 following a straight games win over Thailand's Kantaphon Wangcharoen at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Tuesday (June 6).

The former World Championship silver medallist from India defeated the Thai shuttler 21-15, 21-19 in the opening round match that lasted for 43 minutes on Court 2. He will next face Chinese Taipei's Chiao Hao Lee in the second round on Thursday (June 8).

Orleans Masters champion Priyanshu Rajawat started his Singapore Open 2023 campaign with a brilliant win over world no. 15 Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan in straight games 21-12, 21-15 to enter Round of 16, where he will face Japan's Kodai Naraoka.

The men's doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and MR Arjun also progressed to the second round following straight games win over France's doubles team of Lucas Corvee and Ronan Labar.

The Indian pair, who defeated the French pair 21-16, 21-15 in the first round match that lasted for 42 minutes, will next face English pair of Sean Vendy and Ben Lane in the second round on Thursday (June 8).

While Srikanth and doubles pair found success, it was the end of the road in the first round for four Indian shuttlers including defending champion PV Sindhu, former winner Saina Nehwal and Malaysia Masters champion HS Prannoy.

The two-time Olympic medallist Sindhu went down fighting to top seed Akane Yamaguchi in the first round match that ended 18-21, 21-19, 21-17 in favour of the Japanese with the match lasting for just a minute over an hour on Court 2.

2010 champion Nehwal, on the other hand, lost in straight games to seventh seeded Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand by a scoreline of 13-21, 15-21, while Akarshi Kashyap went down via straight games to another Thai in the form of Supanida Katethong by 17-21, 9-21.

Fresh from his Malaysia Masters triumph from two weeks ago, Prannoy suffered a straight games loss to third seeded Kodai Naraoka of Japan by a scoreline of 15-21, 19-21.

Lakshya Sen, who reached the Thailand Open semifinal last week, also bowed out despite winning the first game against Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien-chen, losing the opening round match by a scoreline of 21-18, 17-21, 13-21 against the fifth seed.

Later, top doubles pairs of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty and Treesa Jolly-Gayathri Gopichand will be in action in their respective doubles matches on Wednesday (June 7).