Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth shines on day 1 of BWF World Championships 2022

The prestigious tournament got off to an amazing start with several high-profile shuttlers in action.

The BWF World Championships are one of badminton’s most prestigious tournaments. Japan is the host country for the 2022 edition of the tournament. All the top shuttlers across the globe made their way to Tokyo for the championship and they were in action on Monday across multiple categories.

The Indian shuttlers are also among the participants and they will hope to carry their performance from the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Some of the major names to watch out for from India are Lakshya Sen, Srikanth Kidambi, Saina Nehwal, the pairing of Satiwksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty and more. One of the gold medallists from the CWG, P.V. Sindhu will be absent due to an injury.

The race for gold in the various categories is set to be intense. The first day had a lot of exciting results with a few upsets as well. Here is a roundup of Monday’s action at the 2022 BWF World Championships in Tokyo:

Men’s Singles

India’s Kidambi Srikanth won his fixture against Nhat Nguyen of Ireland in straight games. Last year’s silver medallist won by 22-20, 21-19 in 51 minutes. Ninth seed and CWG gold medallist Lakshya Sen won in straight games as well. The 20-year-old was impressive in a 21-12, 21-11 win over Denmark’s Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus. Sai Praneeth lost his first-round fixture against fourth seed Chou Tien-Chen. The shuttler from Chinese Taipei was too strong and won the contest by a 21-15,15-21, 21-15 score.

Prannoy H.S. was also amongst the victors as he moved into the second round with a 21-12, 21-11 win over Luka Wraber of Austria. Top seed Viktor Axelsen was impressive as ever as he went past Daren Liew of Malaysia by a 21-16, 21-12 score. However, Denmark’s Anders Antonsen was at the receiving end of a shock defeat as he lost by 21-15, 21-19 to Kenta Nishimoto.

Women’s Singles

Malvika Bansod of India was one of the players in action today in the Women’s Singles category. Unfortunately, she lost her first-round fixture to Line Christophersen of Denmark by 21-14, 21-12 in 24 minutes. Saina Nehwal will be in action tomorrow as will other top seeds who got a bye into the second round. 

Men’s Doubles

Indian pair Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy lost their Round 1 tie to the Japanese pair of Hiroki Okamura and Masayuki Onodera. Playing at home, the winning pair took one hour and two minutes to win by 21-11, 19-21, 21-15. M.R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila gave a good performance to emerge as winners by a 21-17, 17-21, 22-20 score against Supak Jomkoh and Kittinupong Kedren of Thailand. 

Gold medal winners from the CWG in Birmingham, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be in action tomorrow. 

Women’s Doubles

Ashwini Ponappa and N. Sikki Reddy won comfortably in their Round 1 tie. The Indian pair won by 21-7, 21-9 against Aminath Nabeeha Abdul Razzaq and Fathimath Nabaaha Abdul Razzaq of Maldives. Pooja Dandu and Sanjana Santosh were also winners on the day as they beat their Peruvian opponents Ines Salazar and Paula Regal by a 21-6,10-21, 21-14 score. It will be interesting to see how Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand, CWG bronze medal winners, fare when they start their campaign tomorrow.

Mixed Doubles

Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto were in action as well on Monday. Contesting in the Mixed Doubles category, the Indian pair won their Round 1 tie against Patrick Scheiel and Franziska Volkmann. Most of the top seeds from this category will start their BWF World Championships journey from Tuesday onwards. 

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