Double Olympic medallist PV Sindhu made a winning start to the Badminton Asia Championships with a straight-game win over Ester Nurumi Wardoyo of Indonesia in the women’s singles while Lakshya Sen made an early exit from the men’s singles draw in Ningbo, China on Wednesday. The 29-year-old world number 17 Sindhu won 21-15 21-19 in 44 minutes against 19-year-old Wardoyo, ranked 36th. Sindhu will be up against world number four and third seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the pre-quarterfinals on Thursday.

Meanwhile, 2021 World Championships bronze medallist Sen dished out a lackluster performance against Lee Chia Hao of Chinese Taipei, a finalist at the All England Championships, to lose 18-21 10-21 in the first round.

Earlier in the day, HS Prannoy also made an early exit as he lost to Zu Guang Lu of China in the men’s singles opening round.

Prannoy, who hasn’t been at his best since suffering a bout of Chikungunya, lost to his Chinese opponent 16-21 21-12 11-21 in a round of 32 match.

Kiran George, however, made it to the pre-quarterfinals with a 21-16, 21-8 win over Dmitriy Panarin of Kazakhstan in 35 minutes.

In women’s singles, Aakarshi Kashyap, Anupama Upadhyaya, Malvika Bansod lost their respective matches to crash out of the tournament.

While Aakarshi lost to world number three Han Yue of China 13-21 7-21 in 31 minutes, Anupama was beaten by world number 13 and eighth seed Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand 13-21 14-21.

Bansod was beaten by Gao Fang Jie of China 14-21 8-21.

In women’s doubles, Priya Konjengbam and Shruti Mishra suffered defeat to Chinese Taipei’s Shuo Yun Sung and Chien Hui Yu 11-21 13-21.

In men’s doubles, the unheralded duo of Hariharan Amsakarunan and Ruban Kumar Rethinasabapathi beat Sri Lankan pair of Madhuka Dulanjana and Lahiru Weerasinghe 21-3, 21-12 in a round of 32 contest.

However, the Indian duo of Pruthvi Krishnamurthy Roy and Sai Pratheek K lost to Chinese Taipei pair of Chiu Hsiang Chieh and Wang Chi-Lin 19-21 12-21.

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