Lakshya Sen's recent struggles continued at the 2023 Swiss Open, where the Indian star was eliminated in the very first round. The Commonwealth Games gold medalist was outplayed by Cheuk Yiu Lee, losing 18-21, 11-21. Having struggled to defend key points at the All England Championship and the India Open earlier this year, the eighth seed has dropped to 25th in the global rankings. On a brighter note, fellow Indians HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth, and Mithun Manjunath all successfully advanced in the BWF World Tour Super 300 event held in Basel this Wednesday.
Indian star badminton player Lakshya Sen’s poor run of form continued as he suffered a first-round exit at the Swiss Open 2023. Commonwealth Games champion Sen proved to be no match against Cheuk Yiu Lee losing 18-21, 11-21 to bow out of the men’s singles competition. The eighth-seeded Sen has already dropped to 25 in the world rankings after an indifferent start to the year when he was defending big points at the India Open and All England Championship. Sen’s compatriots Kidambi Srikanth, Mithun Manjunath, and HS Prannoy progressed to the next round of the BWF World Tour Super 300 event in Basel on Wednesday.
Kidambi Srikanth had to show great resilience to overcome his opponent from China. In a tightly contested match, the 2021 World Championship silver medalist beat Weng Hong Yang 21-16, 15-21, 21-18. This victory earns him a place in the second round, where he will face Cheuk Yiu Lee, the man responsible for ending Lakshya Sen's run.
Earlier in the session, Mithun Manjunath—who stepped into the tournament as a reserve—dominated Joran Kweekel of the Netherlands with a 21-8, 21-17 win to reach the pre-quarters. The 24-year-old is scheduled to play against Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei, a qualifier who caused a major upset by defeating the seventh seed, Jun Peng Zhao, 21-12, 21-13.
In other action, HS Prannoy delivered a strong performance to defeat China's Shi Yu Qi—the recent All England Open finalist—winning 21-17, 19-21, 21-17. Prannoy's next challenge will be France's Christo Popov in the round of 16. In the men's doubles category, the powerhouse duo of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy easily handled Malaysia's Tien Ci Wong and Xin Yuan Boon, winning 21-15, 21-18. Unfortunately, Dhruv Kapila and MR Arjun couldn't hold their ground, losing a three-game battle to Akira Koga and Taichi Saito with a final score of 17-21, 21-18, 21-11.
It was a tough outing for the Indian women's doubles teams. Sikki Reddy and Arathi Sara Sunil were eliminated in the first round after a 12-21, 14-21 loss to Japan's Yui Suizu and Sayaka Hobara. This followed the earlier exit of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand; despite their impressive semi-final run at the All England Open just last week, they were defeated 14-21, 14-21 by the second-seeded Indonesian pair, Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti and Apriyani Rahayu, on Tuesday.