Star Indian badminton players PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth and Mithun Manjunath all secured opening-round wins at the Australian Open on Wednesday to ensure progress to the second round of the event down under.
However, Almora’s shuttle sensation Lakshya Sen pulled out from his game against compatriot Kiran George due to an injury.
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Sindhu, playing under the tutelage of new personal coach, Muhammad Hafiz Hashim of Malaysia, got the better of compatriot Ashmita Chaliha in straight games 21-18, 21-13 in a fixture that lasted 36 minutes to earn her opening round win in Sydney.
Srikanth breezed past his Japanese opponent Kenta Nishimoto 21-18, 21-7 to seal progress to the second round, and sixth seed Prannoy was pushed to the limit by Hong Kong shuttler Cheuk Yiu Lee in three games 21-18, 16-21, 21-15.
However, the biggest win of the day for India came from Manjunath who outplayed fourth seed and world number seven Kean Yew Loh of Singapore 21-19, 21-19 in a match that was over in 41 minutes.
Manjunath is set to take on the winner of the match between Malaysians Lee Zii Jia and Leong Jun Hao in the second round of the BWF Super 500 tournament.
21-year-old player, Priyanshu Rajawat, also secured a win on the day as he got the better of Australian Nathan Tang 21-12, 21-16.
Aakarshi Kashyap knocked out Jin Wei Goh of Malaysia 21-15, 21-17, but Malvika Bansod was shown the exit door as she went down 20-22, 11-21 against Chinese Taipei shuttler Yu Po Pai.
Aakarshi is slated to come up against Sindhu in the second-round encounter.
Prannoy is slated to face off against Yu Jen Chi of Chinese Taipei, while Rajawat and Srikanth will be pitted against Tzu Wei Wang and Li Yang Su respectively, also from Taipei.
The mixed doubles pair of Rohan Kapoor and Sikki Reddy went down to the Korean pair of Seung Jae Seo and Yu Jung Chae 14-21, 18-21.
The BWF World Tour is divided into six levels, namely World Tour Finals, four Super 1000, six Super 750, seven Super 500, and 11 Super 300.
One other category of the tournament, the BWF Tour Super 100 level, also offers ranking points.
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