Indonesia Open 2022: Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth crash out

Indian shuttlers are facing a tough challenge in the prestigious tournament.

The Indonesia Open 2022 is up and running with the best talent that the sport of badminton has to offer. It is a Super 1000 category tournament which is one of the hardest to win due to the level of the competition. Amongst the top-class badminton players participating, there are a few Indian shuttlers as well. They have a tough task ahead of them and the start of their campaign has not been positive, to say the least.

The first day of the competition saw players like P.V. Sindhu and Sai Praneeth make their exits in the first round itself. Following them were pairings in the Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles too. It was surprising to see the aforementioned Indians make early exits, but the buck did not stop there. 

The second day had a lot of disappointments in store for the Indian contingent as well. Several high-profile players in the singles category are making their exit in the initial stages of the championship. Here is a roundup of the Indian shuttlers from the second day of the Indonesia Open 2022:

Early exit for Lakshya Sen and Kidambi Srikanth

In Men’s Singles, eighth seed Lakshya Sen crashed out in the first round of the tournament. He was playing against compatriot H.S. Prannoy in a tough opening fixture. The all-Indian clash saw Prannoy beat Sen by a 21-10, 21-9 score. The manner of the win was particularly surprising since Sen was the heavy favourite considering his recent form. The 20-year-old made it to the quarter-final of the Indonesia Masters 2022 recently and had a lot of expectations on his shoulder.

As for Prannoy who advances to the second round, he will come up against Hong Kong’s  Angus Ng Ka-long. The winner of that fixture will meet the winner of the match between Rasmus Gemke and Brice Leverdez. Interestingly, the latter shuttler from France beat Kidambi Srikanth in the first round. Leverdez secured an excellent 23-21, 21-10 win over Srikanth inside 42 minutes. It was a bitterly disappointing performance from the Indian who helped the country win the Thomas Cup recently. 

Mixed results elsewhere

India had a few moments of joy too on the second day of the Indonesia Open 2022. M.R Arjun and Dhruv Kapila got the better of the Japanese duo of Matsui Keiichiro and Takeuchi Yoshinori in Men’s Doubles. The Indian pair won the first-round tie by a 27-25, 18-21, 21-19 score. The marathon fixture took 1 hour and 23 minutes to conclude.

However, two Indian teams in the Women’s Doubles bracket were eliminated from the tournament. Ashwini Bhatt and Shikha Gautam lost by 9-21, 10-21 to their opponents Shu Xian Zhang and Yu Zheng from China. In addition, the pairing of Haritha Harinarayanan and Ashna Roy lost in straight games to Na Eun Jeong and Hye Jeong Kim in straight games inside 28 minutes.