Lakshya Sen’s losing streak continued when he exited the first round at the Swiss Open, while his compatriots HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth, Mithun Manjunath and the doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty advanced to the next round of the BWF World. Tour Super 300. event in Basel on Wednesday.
Prannoy played a solid match to beat last week’s All England Open finalist Shi Yu Qi of China 21-17, 19-21, 21-17. Srikanth had to dig deep to get the better of China’s Weng Hong Yang 21-16, 15-21, 21-18 to set up a second-round clash against Hong Kong’s Cheuk Yiu Lee, who shattered the hopes of the world’s No. 12 Sen. .
Eighth seed Sen looked poor for most of the match, losing 18-21, 11-21 to withdraw from the men’s singles competition. He has already slipped to 25th in the world rankings after an indifferent start to the year, when he was defending big points at the Indian Open and the British Championships.
In doubles, second seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty started strongly, beating Malaysians Xin Yuan Boon and Tien Ci Wong 21-15, 21-18 to reach the second round.
Earlier, Mithun Manjunatn, who was promoted from the reserves, recorded a 21-8 21-17 straight game win over Joran Kweekel. He then faces qualifier Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei, who stunned seventh seed Jun Peng Zhao 21-12, 21-13.
The women’s doubles pairing of Sikki Reddy and Arathi Sara Sunil also lost in the first round, losing 12-21 14-21 against Japan’s Sayaka Hobara and Yui Suizu.
On Tuesday, All England semifinalists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand fell 14-21, 14-21 after drawing second seeds Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti in the first round. The men’s doubles pairing of Dhruv Kapila and MR Arjun fell in three sets to Akira Koga and Taichi Saito, losing 17-21, 21-18, 21-11.
