Swiss Open: Lakshya Sen Makes First Round Exit; Kidambi Srikanth, Mithun Manjunath Through

Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen’s woeful run continued as he made a first round exit at the Swiss Open badminton tournament, even as senior compatriot Kidambi Srikanth progressed to the next round of the BWF World Tour Super 300 event, here on Wednesday. The 2021 World Championships silver medallist Srikanth had to dig deep to get the better of China’s Weng Hong Yang 21-16 15-21 21-18 to set up a second round clash against Hong Kong’s Cheuk Yiu Lee, who dashed the hopes of world No.12 Sen. He will next face qualifier Chia Hao Lee of Chinese Taipei, who stunned seventh seeded Chinese shuttler Jun Peng Zhao 21-12 21-13 in another first round match. But the celebrated men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty meant business as the second seeded India pair defeated Malaysian combination of Xin Yuan Boon and Tien Ci Wong 21-15 21-18 to book their place in the pre-quarterfinals.