Star shuttler Kidambi Srikanth, along with compatriots Ayush Shetty and Tasnim Mir, advanced to the second round of the singles event at the Macau Open Super 300 badminton tournament on September 25.
In his first competition since recovering from an injury sustained in May, sixth seed Srikanth, a silver medallist at the 2021 World Championships, outclassed Israel's Daniil Dubovenko 21-14, 21-15, while Ayush, the 2023 World Junior Championships bronze medallist, also had a strong start, defeating fellow Indian Alap Mishra 21-13, 21-5 in another men's singles opening-round match.
Former world junior number one Tasnim Mir triumphed over Devika Sihag, winning 15-21, 21-18, 22-20 to also secure her spot in the next round of women's singles.
The second round will feature an all-Indian matchup, with Srikanth set to face Ayush, who was a runner-up at the 2023 Odisha Masters. Tasnim will take on fourth seed Tomoka Miyazaki of Japan, the 2022 World junior champion.
In mixed doubles, the pair of B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy also progressed after a hard-fought victory against Malaysian qualifiers Loo Bing Kun and Ho Lo Ee, winning 24-22, 10-21, 21-13. They will next face the Malaysian duo of Wong Tien Ci and Lim Chiew Sien.
However, the tournament was challenging for other Indian participants, with Tanya Hemanth, Anupama Upadhyaya, Isharani Baruah, Chirag Sen, S Sankar Muthusamy Subramaniam, Sameer Verma, and Mithun Manjunath all exiting in the opening round.
Tanya lost a close match to Taiwan's Liang Ting Yu, falling 18-21, 19-21, while Anupama put up a fight but lost 12-21, 22-20, 7-21 to Japan's Riko Gunji. Isharani struggled against Chinese qualifier Wu Luo Yu, losing 7-21, 15-21.
In men's singles, Chirag Sen was defeated by second seed Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong, losing 12-21, 17-21, while Sameer Verma fell to Wang Zheng Xing of China in three games, 21-18, 11-21, 13-21. Mithun was ousted by Huang Yu Kai of Chinese Taipei with a score of 12-21, 15-21.
Sankar, who won silver at the 2023 World Junior Championships, also faced disappointment, losing 14-21, 21-10, 12-21 to Thai player Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul.
In mixed doubles, the pairing of Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde fought hard but were eliminated by the eighth-seeded Thai duo of Rittanapak Oupthong and Jhenicha Sudjaipraparat, falling 21-23, 22-24.
PTI
