Sindhu, Ayush, Unnati progress; Lakshya exits Asian Games in second round

NAGOYA: Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu and young shuttler Ayush Shetty notched up straight-game wins to progress to the singles prequarterfinals but Lakshya Sen suffered a second-round exit at the Asian Games here on Saturday.

World No. 11 Sindhu, who won her maiden Super 750 title at Japan a few months back, saw off Chinese Taipei's world no. 17 Chiu Pin-chian 21-19 21-14 in the women's singles second round.

Sindhu, who had received a bye in the opening round, will face Japan's Tomoka Miyazaki next.

Ayush, a finalist at Badminton Asia Championships, brushed aside Kazakhstan's Makhsut Tajibullayev 21-7 21-7 in the second round to set up a meeting with third seed Chou Tien Chen from Chinese Taipei.

In women's singles, Unnati Hooda, a winner of three BWF super 100 titles, defeated Malaysia's Ling Ching Wong 21-14, 20-22, 21-19 to progress to the women's singles third round. She will face Indonesia's sixth seed Putri Kusuma Wardani.

Earlier in the day, Lakshya lost to former world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore in three games.

The World No. 14 Sen went down 12-21 21-15 14-21 to the 2021 world champion, ranked 13th, in a battle lasting more than an hour.

The defeat came just a day after the shock exit of former world No. 1 pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty from the men's doubles, dealing another blow to India's badminton campaign.

An individual medal at the Asian Games thus continued to elude Sen, who had won the Commonwealth Games gold in 2022 and went on to finish fourth at the Paris Olympics.

Sen, who has a team silver from last edition at Hangzhou, won a bronze in the team event on Wednesday.

Sindhu vs Chui

Sindhu took time to get into the groove as it was her opponent Chui who kept things in control to move from 6-2 to manage a 11-10 lead at the break.

The Indian slowly made her way to 19-16 after some close fight. A backhand net shot error brought up three game points for Sindhu. A lucky net chord followed by a fine construction of rally helped Chui to save two before the Indian converted with a deep cross court push.

In the second game, Sindhu looked more in command as she opened up a 8-4 cushion early and then entered the break 11-8. Sindhu moves to 15-10 with Chui going long. The Indian eventually grabbed six match points and converted soon after.

Lakshya vs Loh

Sen made a strong start and led 5-1 in the opening game, but Loh turned the contest around with a run of 10 straight points to take control and eventually pocket the game.

The Indian bounced back strongly in the second game, staying close in the early exchanges before pulling away with some aggressive attacking play towards the end to force a decider.

But the Singaporean established an 11-6 lead in the decider and maintained his advantage despite a brief fightback from Sen who reduced the deficit to 13-14 after winning four straight points, aided by a few unforced errors from Loh.

But the Singaporean regained his composure and surged to 16-14 and produced three well-constructed points to make it 19-14 before closing out the match and advancing to the pre-quarterfinals.