Star Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth registered a surprising straight-game win over world quantity 4 Lee Zii Jia however Commonwealth Video games champion Lakshya Sen suffered a shock defeat within the opening spherical of the Japan Open Tremendous 750 event right here on Wednesday.
Srikanth, a former world no 1, recovered from his early exit from final week’s World Championships, to outwit fifth seed Lee 22-20 23-21 in his males’s singles opener which lasted 37 minutes. It was his first win over the Malaysian in 4 conferences.
The 21-year-old Sen, a 2021 world championships bronze medallist, nonetheless, squandered a gap recreation benefit to go down 21-18 14-21 13-21 to world quantity 21 Japanese Kenta Nishimoto in his first match.
London Olympics bronze medallist Saina Nehwal was additionally no match for prime seed Akane Yamaguchi as she misplaced 9-21 17-21 to the native favorite in half-hour.
Quick-rising males’s doubles pairing of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila, who jumped 9 locations to achieve world quantity 26 after a quarterfinal end on the World Championships, additionally misplaced 21-19 21-23 15-21 to Korean mixture of Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Received Ho after losing a match level within the second recreation.
In different outcomes, Birmingham Commonwealth Video games bronze medallists Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly misplaced 17-21 18-21 to seventh seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai of Thailand in girls’s doubles class.
Blended doubles pair of Juhi Dewangan and Venkat Gaurav Prasad misplaced 11-21 10-21 to Chinese language prime seed Zheng Si Wei and Huang Ya Qiong in 23 minutes.
It was a gritty efficiency from world quantity 14 Srikanth, who is commonly responsible of not with the ability to shut out slender matches, regardless of doing all of the laborious work in organising the factors.
On Wednesday, Srikanth as soon as once more discovered himself in the same place when he virtually wasted a 15-11 benefit by permitting Lee to seize three recreation factors however the Indian held on to his nerves to reel off 5 factors on the trot to depart his youthful rival stranded and seal the opening recreation.
Stung by the opening recreation reversal, Lee confirmed numerous objective after the change of sides. He opened up a 2-0 lead early on and ensured a slender one-point benefit within the interval.
Lee stepped up a gear to maneuver to 14-11 however quickly issues modified as Srikanth turned the tables to seize a 18-16 lead after which stood simply two factors away from a win at 20-18.
It appeared there will probably be one other twist within the story as Lee this time saved two match factors and earned himself a recreation level however Srikanth ensured there have been no hiccups as he pocketed the required three factors to close the door on the Malaysian.
Within the different singles, Lakshya was by far the higher participant within the opening recreation as he rapidly ran up a 7-2 lead and jumped to 15-9 at one stage, earlier than pocketing the sport comfortably.
The Indian additionally made a superb begin to the second, opening up 8-4 lead however quickly he misplaced management as Nishimoto dished out a sensational fightback to win 9 of the following 10 factors to roar again into the competition.
Instantly the momentum fully shifted as Lakshya appeared clueless at the same time as Nishimoto dominated proper from the begin to hold transferring forward because the Indian crumbled within the decider.
On Tuesday, HS Prannoy had superior to the second spherical after his opponent Hong Kong’s Ng ka Lengthy Angus retired halfway by way of the opening match.
