Reigning world champion PV Sindhu started the defence of her title with straight games victory over Martina Repiska on Tuesday at the ongoing BWF World Championships 2021 in Huelva.
Two-time Olympic medallist Indian defeated shuttler from Slovakia by 21-7, 21-9 in just 24 minutes. Sindhu faced very little resistance from Repiska as she moved into the round of 16.
In men's singles, Lakshya Sen had to battle past Kenta Nishimoto to move into the next round. The Indian who is making his debut at World Championships defeated the 15th seed shuttler from Japan by 22-20, 15-21, 21- 18 in a titanic clash which lasted for one hour and 22 minutes.
Earlier in the men's doubles, India's Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy sweat hard against Chinese Taipei's Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan.
The eight seeded-Indians, dropped five-game points in the first game as Lee/Yang stretched the pair of Shetty-Rankireddy to their limit. But Indians persevered to win 27-25. In the second game, Chirag and Satwik shifted their gears and dished out better performance to prevail 21-17.
Elsewhere on court 1, Malaysian mixed doubles pair of Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing moved past India's Saurabh Sharma and Anoushka Parikh by 21-8, 21-18.
( With inputs from ANI )
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