Indian badminton icons PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen have comfortably advanced to the second round of the 2023 US Open in Council Bluff, USA, both winning their opening matches in straight sets. PV Sindhu, currently 12th in the world and a two-time Olympic medalist, overcame American Disha Gupta. The third seed displayed her superiority with a 21-15, 21-12 victory that lasted only 27 minutes. She is scheduled to play against Sung Shuo Yun of Chinese Taipei, the world No. 30, on Thursday.
Indian star shuttlers PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen eased into the second round of the US Open badminton 2023 tournament with comfortable straight games win in their respective opening matches at Council Bluff, USA. Two-time Olympic medalist Sindhu, currently ranked 12th in the BWF rankings, defeated local player Disha Gupta. The third-seeded Indian shuttler outclassed the American 21-15, 21-12 in just 27 minutes to enter the second round. Sindhu will next face world no.30 Sung Shuo Yun of Chinese Taipei on Thursday.
At one point in the first game, the 28-year-old Sindhu was down by two points against her American opponent, who holds a world ranking of 136. But Sindhu shifted gears after the break, winning 12 out of the following 16 points to seize the lead. She maintained that momentum into the second game, dominating the play and ending the contest quickly.
Earlier in the action, Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen overwhelmed world No. 55 Kalle Koljonen, ending the match in under half an hour. Fresh off his title win at the Canada Open, the Indian star defeated the Finn 21-8, 21-16. Sen's next opponent in the second round will be Jan Louda from the Czech Republic.
In another men's singles clash, qualifier Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian showed great resilience. After grinding through two tough qualifying rounds to enter the main draw, he managed to beat a tricky Irish opponent, Nhat Nguyen, with a score of 21-11, 21-16 in a match that spanned 44 minutes.
While those three succeeded, the tournament ended early for B Sai Praneeth and Gadde Ruthvika Shivani. Praneeth went the distance in a grueling three-game battle against China's world No. 7 Li Shi Feng, eventually falling 16-21, 21-14, 21-19 after over an hour of play. On the other hand, Shivani's match was much shorter, as she struggled to keep pace with Lin Hsian Ti of Chinese Taipei.
Ranked 61st in the world, Ruthvika Shivani was defeated by Chinese Taipei's Lin Hsiang Ti 14-21, 11-21 in a women's singles match that lasted only 27 minutes. Additionally, former Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap had to retire during his second match on Tuesday while trailing 21-23, 7-11 against Japan's Koo Takahashi. This followed a hard-fought first-round win where he beat England's Rohan Midha 21-19, 21-17.