OSAKA: Kidambi Srikanth registered a stunning straight-game win over World No.4 Lee Zii Jia, but Lakshya Sen suffered a shock defeat in the first round of the Japan Open Super 750 tournament here on Wednesday.
Srikanth recovered from his early exit at last week’s World Championships to outwit fifth seed Lee 22-20, 23-21 in his men’s singles opener. It was the Indian’s first win over the Malaysian in four meetings. Lakshya squandered an opening game advantage to go down 21-18, 14-21, 13-21 to World No.21 Kenta Nishimoto of Japan.
In women’s singles, Saina Nehwal was no match for top seed Akane Yamaguchi as she lost 9-21, 17-21 to the local favourite. Meanwhile, the men’s doubles pairing of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila went down 21-19, 21-23, 15-21 to the Korean combination of Choi Sol Gyu and Kim Won Ho after wasting a match point in the second game.
In women’s doubles, Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly suffered a 17-21, 18-21 defeat at the hands of seventh seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai from Thailand. The mixed doubles duo of Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan lost 11-21, 10-21 to Chinese top seeds Zheng Si Wei and Huang Ya Qiong.
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