At the Australian Open, PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth both won in straight games while unheralded Indian Mithun Manjunath upset Singapore’s Kean Yew Loh, the fourth seed and world number seven.
In the first round of the Australian Open badminton competition in Sydney on Wednesday, unheralded Indian Mithun Manjunath upset fourth seed and world number seven Kean Yew Loh of Singapore. PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth both won in straight games. In the men’s singles first round match, which lasted 41 minutes, Manjunath, rated 50th in the world, defeated Loh 21-19 21-19. In the second round of the BWF Super 500 competition, Manjunath will square off against the victor of the contest between Malaysian competitors Lee Zii Jia and Leong Jun Hao.
In the meantime, Lakshya Sen retired from his men’s singles match against fellow countryman Kiran George because of an injury. Sen chose to give up when he was behind 0-5 in the first game.
In her opening women’s singles match, fifth seed Sindhu defeated fellow countrywoman Ashmita Chaliha 21-18 21-13 in 36 minutes. Sindhu has lost in the first round at seven separate tour tournaments this season and is playing under Malaysian Muhammad Hafiz Hashim as her new personal coach.
In other men’s singles first-round matches, Srikanth, the world’s No. 19, upset Kenta Nishimoto of Japan 21-18 21-7, and sixth-seeded HS Prannoy overcame Hong Kong’s Cheuk Yiu Lee 21-18 16-21 21-15.
Priyanshu Rajawat, a budding shuttler, also achieved success by defeating Nathan Tang of Australia 21-12 21-16.
Aakarshi Kashyap, one of the other Indians competing on Wednesday, defeated Malaysia’s Jin Wei Goh 21-15, 21-17, but Malvika Bansod’s tournament was over after she fell to Chinese Taipei’s Yu Po Pai, 20-22, 11-21.
In the women’s singles after the second round, only one Indian will remain because Sindhu and Kashyap are competing against one another.
The world No. 5 and third-seeded Korean team of Seung Jae Seo and Yu Jung Chae defeated Rohan Kapoor and Sikki Reddy in the mixed doubles event, and they were eliminated in the first round.
Prannoy will compete against Yu Jen Chi of Chinese Taipei in the men’s singles second round, while Rajawat and Srikanth will face Tzu Wei Wang and Li Yang Su of Taipei.
Before the World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, the tournament is the last competition.
Six tiers, including World Tour Finals, four Super 1000s, six Super 750s, seven Super 500s, and eleven Super 300s, make up the BWF World Tour.
Ranking points are also offered by the BWF Tour Super 100 level, another division of the competition.
