Hong Kong Open 2023 Round of 16 Highlights: Treesa/Gayatri, Ashwini/Tanisha exit

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The newly formed women’s doubles pair of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto registered an upset win over WR-21 Lee Chia Hsin/Teng Chun Hsun (21-19, 21-19) in the opening round of Hong Kong Open 2023. However, none of the other Indian shuttlers in action managed to cross the opening round hurdle with Commonwealth Games 2022 gold medalist, Lakshya Sen, withdrawing few hours prior to his opening encounter.

In the men’s singles, Priyanshu Rajawat lost to Japan’s Kanta Tsuneyama in straight games (13-21, 14-21). This is his second consecutive opening round defeat since the China Open last week. National champion Mithun Manjunath couldn’t cross the qualifying hurdle and exited the tournament in the qualifying stages.

Youngster Malvika Bansod and India’s number two Aakarshi Kashyap bowed out in straight sets to Zhang Yi Man and Yvonne Li respectively. In the doubles section, Krishna Prasad Garaga/Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala were back after a brief break from BWF World Tour. Their return wasn’t fruitful either as they had a make an early exit in the opening round.

After registering a win in women’s doubles, Ashwini Ponnappa fought pretty hard in the mixed doubles partnering Sumeeth Reddy. The pair put in valiant effort after losing in the opening game. They took the match to the decider and were 17-15 ahead but lacked composure to finish off as they could score only one out of the next seven points.

Top seeded Indian pairs Rohan Kapoor and Sikki Reddy failed to progress to the second round. This is their third successive opening round loss – taking into consideration BWF World Championships.